Simple Minded
by Butterfree
Summary: AU Without his boastful grin and ratty straw hat, who said they couldn't still be able to dream and suceed? No one needed him around in their perfect high school lives, especially the orange-haired navigator. Eventual Luffy/Nami and Franky/Robin
1. Groundless

Yes, an update. Fear the day when I actually make an update to my story profile on this site! I don't really have too much to say right now, except that I'm writing the outline for each chapter on paper and alternating it as I'm actually typing it. I think this is a good idea since I don't feel as bad if I want to change something.

**Disclaimer**: Eiichiro Oda is in all rights, the owner and writer of One Piece and all its characters as well as any setting or idea that appears in his manga and possibly the anime. I am simply borrowing his characters and such for my own and others' amusement. Any critical reaction one may have in reading this is neither the author's nor any other reader's fault.

**Chapter One**

"Hey kid, get over here!"

The rampant scent of alcohol filled the air as the large man spat out those words towards a boy wandering around the streets. However, despite his efforts, he only managed to get a turn of the boy's head in his general direction before continuing on his way into town.

"Oi! I'm talking to you, the brat with the straw hat!" he breathed out another musty mist of alcohol, attempting to follow suite of anyone who dared to ignore him, which probably wasn't the best idea when under the influence of several hundreds of liters of alcohol in your stomach. He staggered slightly under his own weight, keeping himself balanced against one of the telephone poles. '_N-not again…_' the effects of a night of drinking finally hit him and he collapsed right on the road. Anyone who was within 2 kilometers could've heard the crashing of the man who easily weighed about 350 pounds but if that said boy in the straw hat heard it, he only chose to ignore it. The last thing he needed was yet another old man on his tail asking for money to buy another drink. There was no way he'd hand it over anyway. That money was for one thing and one thing only.

'_MEAT!_' the wondrous and glorious sight of steaming meat finally matched the smell of roast that had been tickling his nose for the past hour. Luffy quickly bounded off the streets and in the direction of the stall, thinking about the sizzling sound of the food that only heightened his hunger, the drooling sauce dripping off from the edges of the object, the soft yet rough sensation of it in between his teeth, the 'Closed' sign that sat hanging over the wooden beam, the…

Wait a minute.

"NANI?! It can't be closed! It can't! I NEED MEAT!" With the sight of his goal out of reach, all the teen could do was settle himself for leaning his head on the window and staring at the storage of dishes inside, ignoring the many strange stares that he received in the process. His stomach growled yet again as he took in the scenario of being so close, yet so far away from actual edible food. Eventually after many minutes of the staring contest, Luffy resolved to backing away from the window and taking a fighting stance in front of the door on the other end. If he couldn't get to the meat, he was plenty content in breaking the window and forcing his way through. However, just as he rose his fist and brought it forward with the intention of knocking down the door, a dark shadow suddenly ran in front of him in a mess of sweat and clothes.

Unfortunately, it ended with the shadowy figure receiving the backend of the blow, resulting in the large parcel in his hand to fly into the air as the man could only fall to the ground in complete shock. Slightly annoyed by the disturbance of his mission, Luffy failed to notice the wooden box when it fell flat on his head in a loud '_thud_'. Catching it before it landed on the ground in frustration, he could only begin to wonder, while rubbing his aching head, why such a weak person would run in front of someone who looked like he was about to throw a punch, especially one from himself. Then, a thought hit him.

'_What if…whatever this Ossan was running with is filled with MEAT?!_' Luffy quickly recoiled and proceeded to open the small chest to see what was inside.

"Give that back, you thief!" Just as Luffy's eye managed to trail over the contents of the box, it was snatched out of his hands in a similar manner to candy being snatched from a little boy. It was then that the woman, who was responsible for the double-stealing of the container, suddenly threw a high upper punch towards his head, missing by only an inch as Luffy instinctively stepped back to dodge the blow with one hand on top of his hat to keep it in place. Maybe the whole world was just against the poor boy finding any meat.

"Hey! What did you do that for, Blue-haired lady?!" The teen, by habit, stood in another fighting stance, eyes unwavering as he turned to where the slightly older woman should be standing. Again, **should**be standing. '_Hey, why's that lady running away?! She even took my meat with her!_' The figure of the girl in the distance disappeared from view as more people pushed themselves down the street to get to their destinations. After a few moments, Luffy finally withdrew the stance he took and followed it up by crossing his arms over his chest while pouting. However, this new position did not last long when a disturbing grumble was heard from his stomach.

He brought his crossed arms and rested his hands against his empty belly, before turning in the direction of the store window yet again only to see that the piles of meat inside were now gone.

"HUH?! Meat doesn't just disappear! Where'd it go?!"

"Sorry little boy, but our bar's closed." Bringing out the little amount of strength left within him, the boy in the straw hat turned to see another dark green haired woman which looked to be about 10 years or so older, peering at him. "Besides, aren't you under-aged?"

"I know that the restaurant's closed, but I need meat!! It just disappeared into thin air…hmm…" His left hand touched his chin as his face bore the expression of thought. "I got it! It must be mystery meat, right?"

"Restaurant…?" The woman raised an eyebrow at him before closing her eyes with a slight chuckle escaping her lips, "Sorry, but that would be my fault. We can't just leave food sitting there for passerbies to break in and steal. The last thing we need is some raging teen busting his way through the door and eating all of the food we have on storage, right?" Forgetting all about what he tried to do only minutes before, Luffy grinned widely at the woman on the other side of the street.

"Shishishi! Yeah, that would be pretty bad!" The moment of his laugh filling the streets could only be ruined when his stomach sounded in irritation yet again. "Uggh! Listen Lady; do you have any food with you?"

The older girl could only smile in slight amusement as she watched Luffy turn around yet again and stare at the window as if somehow, that would bring the teleporting meat back. It wasn't like her to give away free food, nor talk to anyone randomly whenever she wanted to, but somehow, this boy had interested her. No, not only because of his character, but because she had not failed to see the stunt he pulled off earlier without so much as a care in the world but his empty stomach. Something in her mind told her that this behavior wasn't only just a phase he was going through due to hunger.

"I'll tell you something, I'm the owner of this bar here. If you'd like, I'm sure you'll be glad if I offer you some of that meat that you want so badly."

"What? Really?!" Luffy wasted no time in spinning around to face her with an even larger grin upon his face. "Thanks a lot lady! I'm Luffy by the way, what about you?"

"It's nothing, really. You can just call me Makino."

---

The harsh rays of the sun blinded a white structure of a building which sat like stone on the grounds of a seemingly vast neighborhood. The structure looked to be about 2 or 3 floors with an old-styled roof but relatively clean walls. Large blue letters were printed on a plate at the front of the mansion, labeling it as '_East Blue Secondary School_'. Little distant figures could be seen struggling in and out of the building, either in rush or leisurely taking their time.

Noises of socializing rung through the air as Coby dodged through the many of the bodies of teenagers either rushing to their first class, or talking to their friends about skipping. Duck, swing, run, step to the side; he was used to this tedious routine and barely cared whether it made him look bad, at least it still got him through the hallway unnoticed. Unnoticed was all he wanted, as it meant avoiding the possibility of running into anyone that he preferred not to deal with for now.

Unfortunately, bad things happened to good people, Coby realized, as the tip of his nose crashed against the second body of someone who was very easily a couple feet taller than him. Being his height, it wasn't saying too much, but when he recovered from the hit only to come face to face with the black cloth of a dress suit, his eyes widened upon realizing who it was. The thick smell of smoke coming from its source that reached the short boy's nose could only confirm his suspicion.

"Oi, watch where you're going sh*tty four-eyes." The much taller teen turned only his head, inhaling on the cigarette one last time before bringing it to the height of his torso with his fingers. His blond hair was covering the eye which was facing the pink-haired boy, overall making him appear a lot scarier. Now don't get me wrong, smoking wasn't allowed in school, but after a simple encounter with two of the students who were pretty keen on the idea, the teachers had chosen to let their behavior pass. Quite depressing for some, but most people in the class of the student who hadn't graduated had gotten accustomed to the air quality, Coby being one of them.

"I-I'm sorry, Sanji-san. I promise not t-" Before he could finish the "to do it again", one of the students behind him _accidentally_ knocked the already fidgeting boy over. A loud '_crash!_' was heard throughout the school as the white and navy colored lunch box that was in Coby's hands flew into the air, opened with a rough protest and bounced off the ground a couple feet away. Meanwhile, his lunch of a cheese sandwich with sauce and his oh so precious pudding travelled as well, landing quite unpleasantly as their gooey contents splattered in the air…

Right on top of Sanji.

What had happened next wasn't too hard to figure out. Silence filled the atmosphere of the air as all either of them could be thankful for was that there weren't too many people who happened to wander the hallways half-an-hour before class. The students that were there could only look on in shock and run away to the closest classroom, knowing fully well what happened whenever Sanji had gotten mad. Let's just say that the hallway would not only need some cleaning up after, but also some major renovations. The only ones that remained in the hallway at that moment was Sanji and Coby themselves and two of Sanji's muscular companions; one who wore sunglasses and the other who had a partially shaved head.

"O-Oi, Sanji! Calm down; remember what happened the last time you trashed the nurse's office?!" The one with the shaved head quickly brought up his hands in a gesture to calm down the blonde, only for him to be ignored as that said blonde threw his cigarette to the side and began marching towards the boy on the ground. Sanji calmly bent down before lifting the now frozen Coby up by the collar of his shirt until they were eye-to-eye, which was pretty darn high for anyone that was watching.

"Four-eyes, let me tell you something." Out of habit, he had the urge to blow smoke into his face to scare him, but stopped when he realized that the cigarette was no longer in his mouth. "Just be grateful that Nami-san wasn't here to see thi-"

"YATTA! I thought I was going to be late for sure! Who knew that this place was so far away?!"

Groundless laughter was next to fill the halls as the tension of Sanji's speech was ruined. All four heads turned towards the sound, as a kid with short black hair and a straw hat dangling from the backside of his neck walked past the door and into the school. Upon seeing the sight of a pink-haired boy being held up by a swirly eye-browed man in a suit, Luffy finally stopped his laughter and replaced it with a confused look. "Ah, am I interrupting something?"

Resting Coby back to the ground, Sanji reached into his pocket and took out a second cigarette before lighting it. With his fear in place of any strength he had to stand up, Coby immediately fell to the ground to temporarily escape from the gaze of one of the school's most popular boys. For now, his attention was turned towards the strange black-haired teen.

"Yeah, you must be new here." he closed his match and gracefully placed it back into the pocket of his suit.

"Yup, sure am!"

"Ah, I guess that explains a lot. Now, I'll give you some advice and suggest that you head for your first class and pretend that this never happened."

"Hmm…?" Luffy raised an eyebrow in confusion while tilting his head to the side with his index finger supporting it. "Why would I do that? This did happen, didn't it?" Sanji frowned.

"That's why I said to pretend that it never happened."

"Shishishi! Well I guess that makes sense…" the grin on his face suddenly subsided into a frown, matching the one on Sanji's face, "No thanks though; I'd like to keep my memory of what happened here."

"Oh? And what exactly _did_ happen here?"

"Well…it looks to me that you were just about to beat up that," at this, Luffy pointed in Coby's general direction, "guy over there."

"Ah. I'm glad that you're smarter than you look."

"Really? Thanks!" Either ignoring it or oblivious to the insult included with the remark, Luffy grinned again. "You should probably clean yourself off by the way! Trust me; you should at least make yourself smell like meat if you're going to go for that whole '_food_' look." He suddenly crossed his arms and bore an annoyed expression. "I've tried it once too, but it didn't work."

'_This guy…_' it was evident that the new student was now getting on more than just one of Sanji's nerves. His cigarette easily broke in half from the pressure of his teeth against it as his usually calm eyes showed the emotion of both baffled, shocked and anger. Now, it wasn't everyday that one of the students, Coby nonetheless, had pushed him far enough to the edge for him to snap. It wasn't every month when a new student would barge into the hallway right in the middle of it, and it _definitely_ wasn't every lifetime when that said student ended up being someone like this.

"S-Sanji!" this time, it was Carne's turn to try to stop the rampaging blonde, but before he could even utter anything more than his name, the teen in the suit disappeared from the spot he was previously standing in. It would've taken a relatively trained eye to be able to see him as anything more than a blur of black, shooting towards Luffy like a blind bat catching its pray. Stopping in front of him for only half a second, Sanji swiftly brought up his leg and twisted his body around as the momentum sent a blast of air that travelled behind his shot like a tail.

At that moment, a loud ringing of a bell filled the air. The sound almost seemed to signal the stop of Sanji's kick as it rested only a few centimeters away from the side of Luffy's head. Quickly following a second or two later was the breath of wind that blew against his dark hair and the straw hat that hung upon his back.

Not a flinch.

It took a moment for Sanji to contemplate whether or not the boy was either anticipating that he'd stop or if he was simply frozen in fear. Seeing the calm frown on Luffy's face and his still-crossed arms, he rested his leg back to the ground and lit another cigarette before beckoning to his friends.

"Oi, Patty, Carne; let's go." Neither of the shocked three who were watching the scene unfold acknowledged any movement until the cook nudged the side of his shoulder against Patty's arm as he passed by. The two muscular men wasted no time in following behind him with the occasional complaint about how troublesome he was becoming as well as whispers about how the straw-hat boy was lucky this time. Coby, on the other hand, still remained on the floor, fear and shock keeping him frozen in spot until Luffy walked up to him with a expecting grin on his face.

"Yo! I'm Luffy, nice to meet you!" Coby had to look up at him to double check that he was actually talking to him and not somebody else.

"M-My name is Coby." The new student shot out his hand as if to shake but when Coby took a hold of it, he gasped in fear as he was pulled up to his feet instead. "You're the new student, r-right?"

"Yup, but why are you fidgeting so much? Is it because of that curly eye brow guy?" He stopped when Coby suddenly put a finger up to his mouth in a gesture for him to keep silent.

"L-Luffy-san! You aren't supposed to say things like that! That guy you just insulted was Sanji, one of the most dangerous and popular guys in the whole school. He probably only let you go because you were new and didn't know that yet!"

"Hmm, really…?" Luffy almost seemed to ignore Coby as he began to walk to his locker with the shorter boy following along side of him. "He didn't seem that nice to me; it looked like he was about to beat you up too."

"W-well he was! That's just how it is around here, I guess…" the pink haired-boy kept his eyes to the ground, but made sure to keep up his pace to match Luffy's.

"Why didn't you do something then? He wasn't that dangerous."

"N-No! That's impossible! No way, no way, no way! And what do you mean he wasn't that dangerous? Didn't you see how he was about to slice your head right off?! I'm not going to get even more beat up just to feed my pride, no way!" He looked up to breath for a moment, before almost bumping right into Luffy's back and realizing that the teen had stopped walking and was now peering down at him with an expressionless glance.

"Ah, I see. That's why I don't like people like you." Without giving Coby a moment to retort back, Luffy turned his head back to the front and continued stalking off until he reached his locker. Coby, realizing that the first bell had indeed rung, ran off with a look of confusion plastered on his face.

---

Surprisingly, it wasn't as easy to find the gymnasium as Luffy had first thought. Sure, the actual room was big and probably took up about a half of the first floor, but when hidden behind doors, it looked like any regular classroom. It especially got to him how he had passed by that same room many times before taking the time to read the words 'Gym' sprawled out across the door. Luckily for him, he had managed to burst past the lining of the door frame only a moment before the second bell rung.

Since gym was his first class, it didn't surprise anyone much that the introductions were going to be kept short as the door to the boys' change room opened, revealing many teens to the spacey room. Finally, after one last banging of the door against the wall behind it, the majority of the remaining kids diverted their attention from Luffy to the door, which held a slightly aggravated Sanji standing there in black shorts and a T-shirt.

Now, to anyone that was watching, many people would've either found Luffy to be the most unfortunate little boy in the world and would probably end up running for his life on the ends of the earth, or they'd be staring at Sanji's outfit and doubling over with laughter. However, to anyone that was both watching and paying attention, it wasn't surprising when the two only gave each other passing looks before continuing on with their lives.

"Now class, settle down." A smiling man with glasses and dark hair in a ponytail gestured, causing the whole room to instantly somber down to only a few whispers. "As you may have noticed, we have a new stu-" he stopped.

"Wait a second, 10….24, 25, 26…Zoro!" He called out with very little annoyance in his voice towards the benches located on the very edge of the gym. Currently, they resided a tall sleeping well-built male with short green hair. "Aren't you participating today?"

With that, the man now known as Zoro let out a great and mighty yawn before replying.

"Nope."

"Okay, but remember that next time there's no excuse. Even if you decide to run out to sea and become a pirate wanted by the government for 120 million and follow an idiotic captain looking for some world-wide treasure, I'll still drag you back for class tomorrow; understand?" The majority of the class broke out into laughter, but a certain idiotic captain and blonde-haired teen could only raise their brows.

"Sure." He yawned again, before miraculously falling asleep within the time frame of a few moments.

"Anyways," the teacher turned back to the class, the same smile from before still planted on his face, "as I was saying, we have a new student in our class. He'll be here for a while, so let me start by introducing myself first. My name is Koshiro and I will be your physical education teacher for the rest of the semester."

"Hiya!" Luffy broke out into another grin, "I'm Luffy and I moved into this school just today. I can't wait to be in this class, you guys are all so funny!" He emphasized this by laughing and slapping the palm of his hand to the front side of his knee. Koshiro watched this with an amused smile while Luffy finally stopped laughing and looked at him with an excited glance. "Oh, by the way ponytail-Ossan; is that sword on your waist real?"

"Yes." He calmly replied.

"Whoa, that's so cool!"

"Thank you," he bowed to him slightly, "now you better get dressed and join us; you have your uniform, correct?"

"Yup; that white-haired ossan gave it to me."

"I see," he chuckled in response, "we'll be seeing you then, Luffy-kun."

"Yosh, roger!" Luffy saluted until the moment when he started dashing into the change room. Only just realizing now that the subject of the class was of a new student, Zoro opened one of his eyes with little care; but, it didn't take long before he simply yawned again and turned his body over to the direction of the wall.

'_Yet another d*mn preppy teenager in this school…as if we didn't have enough of those._'

---

When the end of the day finally came, it seemed that Sanji had no further intention of confronting Luffy; Coby noted when he saw that Luffy was still alive and showed no sign of being in pain as the two met up at the front gate just outside the building. Only moments earlier, the entrance was filled with eager students wanting to get as many feet away from the school as possible, leaving the area nearly deserted other than a few waiting for their parents or catching up on their studying.

"Oi, Coby! Wait for me!" the straw hat ran up behind the nervous boy as he looked back with a friendly smile and a wave. Whatever Luffy had been so serious about back in the hallway, he seemed to have forgotten about it. '_Thank goodness…_' Coby sighed. Then again, he was interested in what the taller boy meant back in the hallway, but something stinging inside his stomach preferred not to mention anything about it at this moment.

"Humph, I don't know why but the Science teacher kept me behind to talk about the year and stuff. I thought for sure I would be late!" his mouth curled into the shape of a pout as he finally slowed to a normal walk and let out a sigh of relief. "I'm just glad that I'm not too late, or else Makino would probably get mad at me again."

At this, Coby stopped into a complete halt. "M-Makino? You mean _the_ Makino, the owner of the bar?! L-Luffy-san, please tell me you meant Mak_imo_, that old single lady that owns 56 cats and talks about seeing ghosts all day or _Nak_ino the famous musician with that mole on her nose, even Makimikaisupanporu! ANYTHING but Makino!"

"Ah, what's wrong with Makino?" his head spun around to look at him in confusion.

"Don't you understand? Only a handful amount of people ever even get within 10 feet of Makino, and those that do usually run away screaming and claiming that they never would again!"

"Well, she seemed pretty nice to me!" Luffy sheepishly grabbed his dangling straw hat and pushed it over on top of his head with a grin. "You're funny, you know that Coby?"

"Luffy, I'm serious!" Finally abandoning the honorific that usually lingered in his voice by habit, Coby ran up to him with his arms flailing wildly; that was how scared he was. Though, counting by whom it was, that wasn't saying too much. "Did you actually talk to Makino?"

"Yeah, I'm living with her right now."

"WHAT?! Luff-"

"Listen, Coby." The boy being addressed looked up at Luffy, realizing that he had stopped and was now standing behind him with the brim of his hat was shadowing his eyes from view. By now, the school gate was empty. "You should talk to people and make the decision for yourself before being allowed to say anything, got it?"

"U-Uh…" Silence filled the air and stung against the figures of the two boys standing beside the road as the sun slowly began to set in between them. Coby dared to sneak a peak up to see that his eyes were visible once again, and were now staring at him with an expressionless look. Why did Luffy keep getting this way around him? Now, Coby couldn't deny that some of the things he did weren't as fair as the boy in the straw hat believed they should be, but no one had ever walked up to him before and made it so apparent. It almost made him feel…bad.

The tension of the air would've lasted longer but didn't when Luffy suddenly decided to repetitively clap his hands together in a gesture that implied that something dirty was on them. He then lifted an arm and rested his hand on top of his hat, pausing slightly in spot as he turned to look to the opposite direction of the sunset with a thoughtful expression. Slowly but steadily, his face morphed from inner thought, to complete shock, to fear when he realized something.

"Ah, crap! I forgot about Makino and getting home!" As quick as light, he ran past Coby with a long slash of wind trailing behind him, causing the poor boy's glasses to fall to the side slightly as he gaped at the boy's mood swings. For a moment it seemed like Luffy was going to leave too, until he stopped halfway out of sight with his legs still in a running motion and his head turned back in Coby's direction. "See ya tomorrow, Coby! And remember what I said, too!" And with that last comment, he was gone.

The boy in now tilted glasses remained frozen for a few more seconds on the school yard, processing what had just happened. Never before in his entire life had Coby considered that there was someone in the world that could seem so…what was the word?

Fickle? Groundless? One-tracked?

Whatever it was, it very much hurt his brain to try to figure it out, yet alone deal with it. Fixing his glasses from its ridiculous position on his cheek, he sighed and straightened the bent position that his back assumed without even realizing. If all people in the world had noticed any biased behavior on his part, then Luffy was the first one that had said anything about it. Strange, you would think that after everything humans have been through, people who weren't like Luffy would've been alien, not the other way around. It slightly depressed Coby that after only knowing him for half a day; he would already think so much of him. Then again, by now, it was quite difficult to figure out what the heck his mind was thinking about right now.

Realizing that his guardian was probably going to be late again, the prepubescent boy dropped his bag to the ground and stretched his body. It had definitely been a much more frustrating day than usual, so it didn't surprise him when the stretch had ended up raising his spirits much more than he had thought. He dropped his arms back down and decided to rest beside his backpack, his recently raised spirits falling again as he realized that it was once again the end of the school day. The familiar sense of fear filled him, but was shrugged off as thoughts about earlier that day came back to him.

"_N-No! That's impossible! No way, no way, no way! And what do you mean he wasn't that dangerous? Didn't you see how he was about to slice your head right off?! I'm not going to get even more beat up just to feed my pride, no way!" _

"_Ah, I see. That's why I don't like people like you."_

"_Don't you understand? Only a handful amount of people ever even get within 10 feet of Makino, and those that do usually run away screaming and claiming that they never would again!"_

"_Listen, Coby. You should talk to people and make the decision for yourself before being allowed to say anything, got it?"_

'_Make the decision for myself?_' He sighed for the second time that evening while looking down at his crossed feet, a confused glance grazing across his face. Before long, a slight smile reached him as he found himself chuckling at the thought. '_I guess…that would be nice._'

"Coby, what are you doing just sitting there?"

His thoughts stopped when that same sensation of fear slipped across his entire body. Greatly drowning out his previous feelings of resolve, he instantly shot up to look timidly at the woman that had somehow managed to slip beside him without notice. She looked at him suspiciously and grunted a bit in disgust before throwing down two large clothed bundles at his feet.

"Stop gaping and hurry up, Coby. We have another trip to make before getting back to the apartment."

He nodded quickly and proceeded to pick up the two bags, stopping only to swing his school backpack around his shoulder incase he were to forget it. As his hands struggled to keep the rough bundles up, he didn't fail to notice the unusual bulging that stuck out through the cloth, as well as the sound of metal clinging together in discomfort as he stood. Suddenly, it became all too clear to him why she was late picking him up from school.

"Hai, Alvida-sama."

---

Luffy pouted grumpily as he continued wiping the damp clothe over a dirty table that sat at the corner of the room. The quality of the soap was evident as multiple squeaking noises emerged from the contact. '_I don't get it! I was only a couple minutes late but the lady just __**had**__ to make me wipe all the tables and stuff._' Making one last 'humph' noise to clearly emphasize his frustration, he gave the countertop one last wipe and walked away to continue his work on the next area, not noticing the noise of a 'crack' as the table he just worked on split into two behind him.

"Luffy."

"I'm working on the tables just like you told me to, Makino! Don't start complaining at me again."

"Well, it's not that! You broke the table."

"NANI?! AGAIN?!"

Out of exasperation, Makino smacked the palm of her hand to her forehead while giving a great sigh. She could only be so grateful that they weren't particularly having that many costumers at the bar today, as the ones that were there had already ran out of fear that Luffy would split their table as well. After all that, she was seriously starting to doubt whether it was a good idea in the first place.

"Listen Luffy-kun, I think you can take a break now." At hearing that, the grumpy mood that the addressed boy in the white apron had immediately vanished as he grinned and started making his way to the front counter where Makino stood.

"Thank goodness! I thought I was going to die if I worked any longer without any meat!" When he finally reached the counter, he jumped up over one of the stools before landing on it with an eager look on his face. "Makino! MEAT!"

"Hold on, I'm getting it." She gave him a small smile, one that would've been easily missed if anyone were to not be looking at her intently, before turning around to the fridge and reaching into the large box that was clearly labeled 'Meat'. "So, how was school today?"

"Ah, it was okay. Guess what? There was this guy with a swirly eyebrow in my gym class, it looked really cool! And another guy with earrings that slept all the time!" He made another motion to slap his knee hysterically while laughing, but stopped when a steaming bowl of meat was presented in front of him.

Makino turned back around as Luffy's ramblings about the day were quickly muffled out by the sound of meat entering his jaw line. However, counting by what she did hear from the boy, it baffled her what kind of students were attending the school, and what kind of school it _was _to let students like that study there. Sure, there were men who were using hooks for their hands in her class back when she was going to East Blue Secondary School, but a boy with a swirly eyebrow just went beyond anything of the toleration she developed in her 4 years of attending. Well, at least she could rest assure that the school's reputation for oddity was still alive and healthy, whether that was a good thing or not.

It came as no shock to her when the large 15inchX15inch dish she left for him was gone within moments and the culprit peacefully lunged back at having a full stomach. Smiling in slight amusement, she took the crystal clean plate away from the countertop and dropped it into the sink along with the other dirty utensils. She turned on the tap that overhung the sink, only just noticing that Luffy had fallen asleep with his head resting on the table.

If someone were to walk up to her at that moment and ask her why she was so willing to take in a boy like that and to feed him so richly, she wouldn't have been able to answer. At least, not in a way that she believed anyone else would really understand. Luffy was simply different, and she'd leave it at that.

"_No memories, huh?"_

"_Nope! Not a single one!" The boy in the straw hat and red vest replied without any hesitation, which was shocking counting by the amount of meat that was stuffed into his mouth._

"_Really? Then how did you tell me your name?"_

_Luffy swallowed the seemingly gigantic mouthful as a look of thought crossed his face. "I dunno. I just know that my name's Luffy, that's all." He shrugged it off like it was nothing, before resting his back against the chair he sat in, stretching his arms out in satisfaction at being full. He clicked his tongue to swallow the last taste of meat and pushed his hat back forward so it rested on his head once again. Standing up, he directed a large grin in Makino's direction._

"_Ah, that was good! Well, thanks a lot for the meat Makino!" He dusted himself off while standing up before making his way back out the door, his now clearly bulging belly being rubbed gratefully by one of his hands. "I'll be going now!"_

"_Wait a second, boy." She paused for a moment as a sweet smile crossed her lips when Luffy stopped halfway through the door to look back at her with an expressionless glance; what was she doing? Although he was completely oblivious to it, just taking him into her bar after hours and giving him a free meal was not only jumping over the edge, but it defied all laws of humanity. Then again, she had seen him K.O that muscular crook without even trying, apparently wanting to 'break in' on the restaurant. He had made absolutely nothing of it when he revealed that to her, so it only made her curious as to how strong he actually was. If he really was as dangerous and yet gullible as he seemed, having someone like that working for her would definitely work to her advantage._

"_You said that you're living by yourself, right?"_

"_Yeah, that's right."_

"_Well, I saw you beat up that criminal in one punch. I think it'll be interesting if you worked for me in exchange for living here." A strange silence filled the air between them as Luffy's expressionless look didn't cease._

"_No."_

"_Huh?"_

"_I said 'no'." Makino's eyes widened slightly, but quickly reverted themselves back as she looked at him again, this time, with a concerned look. She knew it, there was no way someone as strong as him was a clueless as he seemed._

"_Hmm? Sorry, but do you mind telling me why?"_

"_Well, just like I have no reason to fight you, I have no reason to stay and you have no reason to keep me here." She analyzed the frown on his face with one of her own as that slight hint of concern still failed to leave her eyes. What on earth had he meant by that? Why would he have a reason to fight her? It didn't take long for it to come to her that he wasn't as oblivious as he seemed._

"_Yeah, I do. I said before that it'd be interesting to have someone like you working for me."_

"_That's true, you did say that, and what's your reason for that?"_

"_What are you…? Listen, I don't need a reason to think that."_

"_Then, I don't need a reason for leaving." And with that, Luffy trailed out the door. For the next few moments, Makino wasn't sure what overtook her as thoughts of what just happened ran across her mind. Realizing that he'd be out of sight soon if she sat there too long, she hastily stood up, knocking down the table in front of her in the process. She ran towards the door and slammed it open, despite one or two people on the street giving her a strange look._

"_W-Wait!"_

Makino sighed as the last dish was dried and placed upon the dish rack beside her. Yes, she was originally planning to use his strength to her advantage; though, it only just came to her now how much she really would've regretted doing such a thing. Even now, she wasn't too sure why it was so important back then that he should know the reason why. No matter how hard she tried to figure it out before, only one valid possibility came, and that was that he was definitely not some idiotic kid.

She had to admit, Luffy did have a way of changing someone's state of mind.

Maybe she could give the kid just _one_ day off.

----------

6,754 words without Author's note

Yes, I know that Makino's probably out of character, but we haven't actually seen too much of her in the series. I wouldn't like to believe that she's a regular table maid, at least not in this version. Don't worry; I'll try to keep everybody else in character.

As for the '_Timantha Returns_' story…to be honest, I'm kind of shocked at how my writing used to be like a couple years ago. Right now, I'm trying to test out this new style I've developed but in order to do that, I'd have to try writing a more action and adventure based story than what '_Timantha Returns_' has turned into. I'm sorry for those of you who don't watch _One Piece _and would rather read a new chapter of my other two stories (which I haven't updated in the past year and a half). I'm kind of suspicious myself if I would finish this story, but I believe that I can.

~ CupidKirby (TwisterKirby)


	2. Ignorant

Wow, first chapter isn't that popular is it? I admit that by just reading the summary, this plot does seem overdone but I'll be sure to write a new one as soon as I'm a little more intone with the overall plot and theme of the story.

_Disclaimer_: _Eiichiro Oda is in all rights, the owner and writer of One Piece and all its characters as well as any setting or idea that appears in his manga and possibly the anime. I am simply borrowing his characters and such for my own and others' amusement. Any critical reaction one may have in reading this is neither the author's nor any other reader's fault._

**Chapter 2**

The sun barely rose over the thin line that indicated where the river ended and the sky began, as the panting breathe of two running individuals could be heard disturbing the silence of the scene. Before long, the two finally ceased their running, reaching their destination under the cherry blossom tree. The taller figure, which could easily be identified as male, turned to the other and noticed the rigid shivering she experienced from the morning dew. With a smile on his face, he swiftly took off his jacket and wrapped it around her exposed arms, even though it ended with him shivering instead.

Still out of breathe, he sat down under the tree and motioned for the girl, who didn't seem affected by the run at all, to sit in the spot next to him. She obliged with a false look of gratitude, seating herself so that they were both facing the sunrise on the river in front of them. Many moments of silence followed, with only the sounds of wind and birds above penetrating either of their thoughts or emotions. Finally, with some hesitance, the boy spoke.

"Say, there's been something I've been meaning to tell you." He blurted out sheepishly, taking off his hat and playing with its ridges in the process.

"Hmm, yeah? What is it?"

"W-Well…" he paused, staring at his hat as if the words he wanted to say would somehow spell its way onto it, "the sunrise is beautiful, isn't it?"

She looked at him strangely knowing that that wasn't what he had wanted to say, but still managed to false a smile at him all the same. "Yeah."

"It's so bright and orange; just looking at it makes you happy, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does." She gave him another smile.

"Yes, it's a wonderful thing. It keeps you warm during the day and comfort to know that it'll come back at night. Most of all, it's beautiful." He finally stopped his fidgeting, knowing that this time, he wasn't going to back down from what he wanted to say.

"I guess so…" Knowing that it was too late, the girl kept quiet after that single comment.

"In a way, you remind me a lot of the sun, did you know that?" he looked eagerly at her.

"No, I didn't." In truth, he had stricken her as the type to use that type of analogy. It certainly was not a new one there.

"Well, it's true!" He stood up and walked ahead of her so that he was still facing the sun and the wind blew wildly at his hair and clothes. "You're always there when I wake up and go to school in the morning, but we always have to separate when the day's over. Though, no matter how much I miss the _sun_, I know that I'll see it again in the morning. So I can feel its vibrant rays shining on me, so I can bask in the warmth of its presence, but most of all, so I can see its beautiful smiling face again."

She held her breathe; here it comes.

"I should let you know that I love you."

At that moment, a stronger breeze hit him, causing his hat to fall off of his head and land on the ground beside him as he turned around to look at her. However, she was no longer there.

"…Nami-chan?"

---

"Where were you all morning?" A taller woman clad with violet blue hair finally managed to catch up with the slightly younger girl, inwardly cursing at her sister's ability to run long distances. By now, the sun was already fully risen which indicated to the both of them that school hours would be starting soon. Yet, that seemed to be the last thing on the mind of the orange-haired maiden beside her. "You wouldn't come out of your room at all, until I discovered that you snuck out the window again! Honestly, why do you keep pulling off stunts like that?"

"Eh? Give me a break; I've been stuck inside since yesterday morning. You know you would've done the same thing." Her eyes gave a half-lifted look directed to the older girl. "Besides, Houiji called me yesterday and told me to meet him at the Water 7 River apparently half-an-hour before school started."

"Ah, another boy again?" She seemed to lighten her frustration slightly, but not enough to make anyone else aside from the girl in front of her comfortable. She could've guessed that that was the case. "What did he want this time?"

"The usual." As the girl said this, she contented herself to watching a few fallen leaves rolling their way along the grass as the wind harshly pushed them along. This would've been a motion to anyone that she showed no sign of interest in what she was actually saying.

"If you say so," Nojiko shrugged, by now knowing very well how pointless it was to argue, "I'm going to go ahead but you better hurry up. Class will be starting in 8 minutes or so."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." She finally tore her attention away from the travelling leaves to watch her sister bound up ahead of her with the slightest concern written on her face. It didn't matter anyway; she was in no rush to make a fool of herself just to be on time for the torture called class. Besides, her first period teacher was a guy, and she knew fully well how to wiggle her way out of detention just by giving one teary-eyed look. Heck, she never had too much trouble doing that to female teachers either (no matter how much it creped her out).

The expensive gold-ringed watch on her wrist was brought up to the sunlight so she could give it a passing look. '_8:54am...just like I thought,_' It looked like she was going to have to pull off another one of her acts after all, '_...great_'. Although she was in no way changing her mind about what to do, she wasn't exactly denying that her first class teacher wasn't exactly the most comfortable to look at. In fact, he was quite the opposite with a flat chin, sunburnt-nose and both sides of his dark hair accelerating up in a symmetrical pattern. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that his face looked like it should be split in h-

"WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" With that, Nami's face made a friendly acquaintance with the dirt on the ground as she found herself pushed forward and ended up tripping on a pebble in front of her.

"I-Itai, itai..." she sat herself up with a hand rubbing her forehead in pain before looking up to see two distant figures running ahead of her in the horizon, paying no attention to whatever they had done to her.

What...was..._THAT_?!

---

Coby relaxed slightly when the two of them reached the school grounds at unusual speed. Never before in his life had he been forced to run with such speed and determination-actually, never before in his life had someone _lifted _him up and ran with such speed and determination while he was left to dangle helplessly on that someone's back. And by the looks of it, they had cut down the usual 20 minute walk to school to simply two and a half, much to Luffy's enjoyment and Coby's fear for his life.

"Shishishi! Yosh, we made it!" Luffy chimed out, finally lowering the much shorter boy to the ground with minimal effort. Similar to how he had collapsed when Sanji put him down the other day, the moment Coby made contact with the ground, he immediately crouched down and started looking at the cement beneath him affectionately. Luffy only peered at him for a moment with confusion before continuing on his way to the school, this time at the pace of a leisure walk. "Okay, I'll see you at lunch, Coby!" He shrugged it off and entered the doors of the school when the boy in glasses being addressed didn't show any motion of answering back.

Right after the first step into the hallways of the school, Luffy looked up to see almost hundreds of students rushing about and gathering their books at the last minute. '_Hey, I guess everyone else is late too!_' He gave a happy chuckle as the hall started to empty out of the various people that hastily ran to their classes. A couple of people stayed behind and looked unconcerned, obviously planning to either skip the day or just accept a detention for arriving 30 seconds late.

By the time Luffy had finally reached his locker, the long room was nearly devoid of the noise from only moments ago. The only sound that could be heard by then was the squeaking of his locker's door when he opened it, and a quiet mumbling sound in the background.

"Ha?" Without a moment's hesitation, Luffy grabbed a bag of clothes and a binder labelled 'Geography' and, curiosity getting the better of him, headed straight in the direction of the noise on the other side of the hall. He stopped only a few lockers away from the door and turned around his body so that it was directly facing one of the lockers in front of him. If one were to look close enough, they would've noticed the door of the locker shifting lightly back and forth against the lock, almost as if it was breathing. Oh well, no time to waste in confirming if his theory was right, it was better if he just went ahead with it.

With a suspicious look on his face, Luffy reached out one hand and clutched his fingers around the edge of the door before pulling it lightly as the loud '_cling_' noise of the lock breaking followed only a second after. He swiftly stepped aside when the door automatically came crashing down, the sound of it echoing.

With a boy on the other side of it.

"GAH! Oxygen, clean oxygen! Thank goodness! I thought I was going to die!" The boy immediately shot up from his position on the ground and started breathing in and out deeply, taking in the joys of not being squashed in between three walls and a door. Realizing how much the new light affected his eyes, he squinted back with a hand resting outward on his forehead in order to shade them.

"NO WAY! Are you that magical genie that can grant 3 wishes to whoever opens the legendary locker of gold?!" The boy turned around alarmed to see Luffy staring at him with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

"AH! Who the hell are you?!" He jumped back with a shocked look and trembling legs. "I-I'm warning you! If you're with that Sanji guy, I have over nine thousand men behind me to take you on!"

"NAAAAANIII?! NINE THOUSAND?!" His eyes could only shoot out of their sockets further.

Seeing his reaction, the boy finally relaxed and folded his arms together in a confident look. "Hehe, that's right. And if you don't swear to bow down to the great Hero Usopp and run with your tail between your legs, I will unleash their wrath on you!"

"Ah?" Luffy finally withdrew his gaping mouth and bloodshot eyes. "With a tail between my legs...? But I don't have a tail, do I?!" He quickly looked behind him just in case a tail happened to sprout there while he wasn't looking.

'_O-Oi, oi...what's with this guy?_' Several sweat drops formed on the back of his head as he stared at the other boy who was now trailing a hand across his lower back in alarm. Shaking them off, Usopp quickly resumed his confident pose. "Well, I must let you know that that legend of the genie happens with a golden _lamp_, not the locker of gold. I would also like to say that it would be best if you run away before I call on my nine thousand men to slay you."

Unfortunately for Usopp, Luffy only stared at him for a moment before resuming himself into a fighting stance, discarding his gym clothes and binder onto the floor.

"Yosh, well I would like you to know that I never run from a fight."

"A-Ah, are you sure?! I-It would just be a lot easier if you run away..." He held up his hands in defence as those previous sweat drops returned.

"Yeah, it would be, but that wouldn't be any fun."

"W-Well you know, those nine thousand men have been training at the navy all their lives and living on only raw eggs and nails all day! They only sleep 4 hours a week and are vicious man-eating creatures who have the power to shake mountains just by sneezing! Th-They could destroy the very world if they wanted to!" By now, Usopp was in an unstable heroic pose. "I-In fact, I lied! Nine thousand was only estimation; there are actually over fifteen thousand men under my arm!"

"That's good, now call them out."

"W-Well!" He paused slightly while thinking of an excuse, his sweat now threatening to drown him. "Th-They can't you s-see, because they're...they're in the bathroom! And they won't be out in a _long_ time. Like I said, they haven't eaten anything but raw eggs and nails all day, so you can only imagine the stomach-aches they get!" He emphasized this by holding his stomach in pain.

"I see. Well, that's too bad then." Luffy stood up from his fighting stance, staring at Usopp with a slight frown before picking up his belongings again. The other boy with a long-nose could only stare with slight confusion right back at the figure that was now making his way to first period. However, just when Usopp was about to head for his locker, Luffy turned his head back to him with a large ear-to-ear grin.

"And no, I'm not with Sanji, no matter how cool his swirly-eyebrow is!" Without another word, he rushed off to his first class while leaving a perplexed Usopp standing behind.

The god of luck was probably on his side, for the second time in his whole one and less than a half day at the school, he ran in just as the bell rang. Noticing Luffy's recent habit in managing to have both feet on the other side of the door in such timing, Koshiro looked up at him with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"Ah Luffy-kun, nice of you to join us yet again." The gym teacher chirped, again with no sign of showing anger at his potentially bad notions.

"Yo pony-tail ossan...!" he lifted a hand up in a wave, "sorry, I slept in I guess."

"Yes, I can see that." Koshiro gestured to the rest of the class where the majority of them were already seated and almost completely quiet. "And I'm going to have to apologize for you're going to have to walk into the change room with everyone staring at you again."

"Ah, that's okay." Luffy began his walk to the other door and only gave Sanji a brief smirk when he passed him by, earning a subtle scoff in return. Whoever that swirly-eyebrow guy was, he sure liked to hold grudges! What happened between them was over a day ago and it was quite shocking to Luffy that someone could act so moody. Oh well, not his problem unless the guy got in his way again.

He bounced out of the door only moments later, slightly excited that they were actually going to do something this class. Yesterday, it was mostly Koshiro ranting on about smoking and how it was bad for your body. Back then, Luffy couldn't help but have the sudden urge to poke Sanji in the ribs and tease him for it, but the teen would either just ignore him or swear an oath to kick him later. In no words could he explain the relief that went through the class when the teacher announced that they would be starting track and field the next day.

The first thing he noticed when he re-entered the room was that same green-haired guy from the day before but in his gym uniform, standing away from the rest of the class and with his arms crossed in boredom. Obviously the class had decided to wait for him; unless this was part of what they were supposed to be doing. Maybe it was, he didn't know.

Deciding to wait until someone told him himself, Luffy casually walked up to the bored teen as a means to start up a conversation with someone that seemed more interesting.

"You're Zoro, that weird sleeping guy with the gold earrings from yesterday, right?" The other boy made minimal effort in acknowledging Luffy by only giving him a slight nod.

"Yeah, you could call it that." He turned his head forward again in order to let out his umpteenth yawn of the day.

"Hmm, why do you yawn so much all the time? Are you really that tired?"

"Guess you could say that."

"Really?"

"Whatever you think."

"Cool, I didn't know that!"

"Sure."

"And why does that pony-tail ossan let you sleep in class anyway? I tried it once in Science but it didn't work."

"I don't know."

To anyone else, he would've been the most uninteresting person on the face of the earth to have a conversation with. That is, assuming that the earth was the only planet in the milky-way galaxy with any sign of life forms with speech and therefore, only counting the earth. However, Luffy only laughed and proceeded to slap Zoro on the back repetitively as a sign of being pals '_4life_'.

"Shishishi, you're so funny, you know that?!" Zoro looked back at him with a slight glare, recovering from the many slaps on his spinal cord he just received.

"Listen, I don't know who you are but trust me, it's not a good idea to-"

"Ah, looks like Luffy-kun is back!" Koshiro appeared at the doorstep of his office embedded on the gym wall. He shot the boy another smile, receiving one back before announcing to the class to start setting up the equipment for the high jumps. Excited beyond belief, Luffy started making his way to the other side of the gym but not without a sudden hand grabbing his shoulder in a tight grip.

"Oi, I wasn't done talking to you." He turned his head around to see Zoro being accompanied by a frown on his face. "Let's start over; you're Luffy, the new student with a straw hat that likes messing in other people's business, right?" He finally released his grip on the other boy's shoulder.

"Yup, you could call it that." Luffy replied, mimicking Zoro from only moments before.

"That's great," out of nowhere, a half-smirk appeared on his features, "I suggest you don't walk into the gym again thinking that I'd be as fond of making friends as you are. Not all of us are like you and would be so willing to come up to me just to have his throat sliced off, got it?" Zoro's smirk started widening, showing no sign of teasing or doubt that he really was going to slice his head off. Luffy's composure didn't waver, but he still got the message nonetheless.

"Well in that case, it's fine then," he grinned his trademark grin, "you don't have the ability to slice my throat off!" He ran off once again, realizing that the rest of the class had already started jumping. This time, Zoro didn't stop him and stood there with his smirk slowly diminishing into a frown. '_Huh...' _He ran a hand through his hair in irritation and started making his way to the equipment as well. He did promise the guy that he would actually make an effort to try something today after all.

Sighing, he made his way to the line in front of the running long jump, as it was the only station that actually seemed remotely exhilarating to him. Apparently, many of the other students thought the same since the line there was the largest. '_Oh well, the longer I'm in line, the less I'll have to do._' He decided without much of a fight and settled himself into another crossed-arm position.

It was about when he was half-way through the line when a ring of cheers echoed around the gym. Some of the teens in front of Zoro looked around with alarm and almost forgot their place in line while searching for the source of the excitement. A second cheer when the teacher asked for the student to do it again, and a third when he chirped out an 'okay'.

With slight interest, Zoro turned his head around as well, just in time to catch Luffy effortlessly jumping over the pole marked '250cm' that was apparently, the highest measure left on the high jump stick. He landed squarely on his hands and did an unhesitant back flip in the air in order to right himself back to his feet. Another eruption of cheers sounded from most of the students while the more quiet ones simply clapped in awe.

He wouldn't say that he was gaping at that point, more like smirking in slight amusement. The only people in the whole school that tried _and _made that jump were himself and swirly-eyebrow man, not to mention that the kid had done it without showing any sign of reaching his limit. He couldn't resist the urge to give a slight glance in the direction of that blonde man in particular, only for his smirk to widen when he saw Sanji accidentally breaking his unlit cigarette in half with his jaw. '_Looks like that dumb** cook isn't as willing to accept a challenge._' Zoro turned his head back to the direction of Luffy, who was now laughing proudly to no end.

"Alright," he gave in, "do what you want."

---

"Therefore, while Selective Cutting is the most beneficial for the environment, it is the form of forestry that takes the most amounts of time and effort to proceed and with minimal results." Luckily, Luffy realized, although he had no real memories of learning any of these things, some form of common sense and instinct that he had had before still remained. For example, he knew that killing too many trees wasn't good. The rest simply stumped him.

"The reason for this is because only diseased or unwanted trees are chosen for the job. However, the debris of dead trees which could've contributed to the O Horizon of the soil are removed as well. It seems that even lightly glazing the structure of earth can come with hazardous results." The teacher showed this by pointing her long meter stick at a well-drawn and labelled diagram of the soil and the forest above it in chalk. She turned back to the class with a content smile. "Any questions…?"

Most of the class either nodded, stared dumbly at her, or in most of the male body of the class' case, goggled at her in affection. Apparently, the teacher was quite popular with most of the students in the school, mostly guys and even some girls as well. Luffy was one of the dumbly staring people, but quickly reverted himself to looking up at the board with a grin and a great idea. He took out a piece of paper and began drawing, looking up at the board again once in a while.

"Now, I'm going to ask that you fill in the worksheets that I assigned you. If you really don't have any questions, you should be able to complete it before the period is over." The lady put her ruler down on its place in front of the board and trailed back to her separated seat, taking out a book from her desk before commencing her reading.

As half of the class begun their work while the other half either talked or did nothing, the loud scribbling of Luffy's pencil stood out against the rest of the noise emitting from the room. At first, it didn't seem that anybody minded the presence of the new student and his ponderings; that is until Luffy felt a light poke on the skin of his back. He quickly turned around, slightly annoyed that his masterpiece of a work had been disturbed and saw an orange pencil pointed near the spot where he had been poked.

"Excuse me, but can you please stop doing that; it's distracting me from my work." The girl sat up straighter with one eye down in a wink and her hands clapped together in front of her face with a smile.

"Ah? Doing what?"

"That scribbling noise, it's _really_ loud. So could you please stop, for me?" She lowered her hands back to the surface of her desk as her other eye closed in a gleaming smile. Luffy only looked at her for a moment with the same unwavering irritation on his face before turning back to his paper and scribbling again.

"Don't wanna."

"Huh?" A look of peer innocent shock crossed her face, not that he could see it. By then, a group of guys sitting in her row were listening in on the conversation and could only gap at Luffy.

"Did you hear that?"

"That's the new student, right?"

"How dare he refuse that cute smile!"

"Maybe she's losing her touch."

"Be quiet Paulie; she is not!"

She flinched back slightly. "Do you mind telling me what you're so determined to draw anyway? That noise is so unnatural to come out of a pencil if you were writing."

"I'll let you see it when I'm done," He leaned down on his table to focus more closely on his drawing, "so stop bugging me."

The girl didn't move back in irritation when the volume of his scribbling increased, but instead contented herself to glaring slightly at his back. She wasn't used to anyone male, or even female for that matter, turning her sweet smile down. It felt awkward and strangely filled her senses with a small hint of anger. How dare anyone refuse her request? Did a person like that in the world even exist?

'_H-Hang on, calm down…_' she told herself quietly and as quickly as it came, she held the glare back and over-ridded it with a look of confusion and hurt. Anyone that was watching would've only caught a glimpse of her glare and dismiss it as their imaginations when they saw the depth in her hurt eyes. '_Good, that was close…_' She looked down at her paper again with a barely audible sigh, inwardly snorting as the bell above them started ringing with a familiar chime. Great, looks like she didn't finish her Geography work in class for the first time in the whole semester.

Students bolted out of their seats at the very sound of the ring, most having already packed their bags ten minutes ahead of the bell and now taking in the joys of the lunch break. Luffy gave a small '_Yahoo!_' as well before closing his binder and skipping out the door, apparently forgetting his promise to let her see what he drew. The girl sighed yet again, slowly gathering her belongings into her bag and trudging to the exit.

"Excuse me, Nami-san?"

She halted her walk to the door to look back at the teacher who still sat at her desk, but was now smiling at her warmly. Feeling frustrated from what happened before; she didn't bother smiling back as no one else was in the room. "Yes, Ms. Nico?"

The older woman giggled lightly. "I told you Nami-san, Robin is just fine."

Nami finally smiled back, feeling a bit better at the teacher's presence. Although she didn't swoon over her like some of the other girls in the school did, she still was fond of her kind attitude. "Yes, Ms. Robin?"

"It seems that the new student seems to be having a bit of trouble with the school. I know it's only the second day or so, but I believe if he had a little help making some new friends, he'd be a lot better off." She paused in order to close her book and place it on the desk. "He's definitely a strange one, but I've noticed that you seem to know him quite well."

At this, Nami gapped at her; was she thinking what she thought Robin was thinking of asking? "N-No, we don't _really_ know each other at all, Ms. Robin…it must be some misunderstanding."

"Hmm, really? Well, that's too ba-"

"Ms. Nico!" A girl with long blue hair came running into the room, carrying a large tray of biscuits in her arms. "Some of the girls and I baked some cookies for the kissing booth we're having! Each male has to pay a dollar to kiss one girl. We're going to give away more cookies based on the popularity of the girl you see; the most popular being half a cookie and the least being a whole five, smart, huh?" She opened the lid of the large case, revealing a large batch of nearly a hundred cookies. "But, we need a taste-tester to see if they're good and I was wondering if you wanted one?"

Robin directed a small smile and took the brown cookie from the other girl's hands. "Yes, thank you very much, Poche-san." The teen smiled brightly at being able to make Robin happy, before turning around to head back to lunch and just barely noticing a timid Nami standing at the side.

"Nami? Oh my gosh! We should include you in our kissing booth too!" She clasped her hands together excitedly, almost forgetting the large container that was still there. "Uyahh, but then we'll probably have to give boys less than a sixth of the cookie to kiss you; that would be a lot of work…"

The orange-haired girl held up her arms in defence with a nervous smile glazing on her. "N-No, it's okay, Porche." As healthy as it was for her reputation, having about 99.9% of the male population chasing after her was enough without a kissing booth to promote it. In truth, she had pretty much run away from any boy that would actually come close enough to try to kiss her. And, if her reputation had allowed it, she would've given them a good beating as well.

"Ah, that's too bad…I guess I understand though." She pouted a bit, but quickly recovered when a passing thought finally came to her mind. "By the way, what are you doing here alone with Ms. Nico? You can't be having any trouble in geography, can you? You're like, the best in the school!"

"W-Well, you see…"

"Yes, I was just asking Nami-san if she would like to help the new student get more intone with the school." Robin placed her cookie on her desk, making this remark without much alarm or worry in her voice. Nami turned to her with another inward glare, but hastily returned her attention to the spot in front of her where Porche stood with a sigh. No, Robin wasn't responsible for this; she knew as well as anyone that it was too late to make up an excuse in front of the blue-haired girl. Robin just didn't want to waste the energy of trying.

"Oh, I get it! Of course you'd ask Nami; she's like, one of the nicest girls in the school. She'd have no trouble convincing people to be his friend!" A sweet ah-ha moment was evident on her features while the girl being talked about could only curse to herself silently. She knew Porche well, and the two traits about her that stuck out to the rest was that she had an oddly shaped nose, that and she was a huge gossiper and the person to go to if you wanted to know about the latest news of the student body. One word out of somebody while she's around could result in complete chaos. Refusing to help this new kid or saying yes and just ignoring him wasn't something she could risk.

"Ha-ha, of course!" Nami's eyes closed into another sugar-coated smile before she opened them again and brought her hand up into a fist to hit against her chest lightly in false determination. "Leave it to me!" '_You've got to be kidding me…_' her mind screamed.

Robin glanced at her with a slight frown and turned back to the other girl, twisting her mouth up once again. "Yes, and thank you once again, Porche. Now, you'd better start setting up the booth before lunch is over."

"Uyah! You're right; I'd better get going!" She turned to look at the clock that clung tightly to the wall beside her, alarm reaching her face. "Well, I'll see you later, Ms. Nico; you too, Nami!" With that, she speed walked out the door with uneven steps.

As soon as the two were sure that the girl was out of hearing range, Robin spoke up.

"I apologize, Nami-san."

"No, it's alright," She groaned, "I understand."

---

The cafeteria filled with sounds of idle chatter, the smells of food as well as the shrieking of nerds being dumped into the garbage not shortly after the bell had rung. Luffy, who had no patience to wait for half-in-hour in a line up to get an expensive and low quantity piece of meat, swung his gigantically bagged lunch from side to side happily and walked into the large auditorium. Now, most new students either ate outside by themselves or with a friend, but obviously eating by himself wouldn't be fun at all. The fact that Coby wasn't anywhere to be seen should also be noted as well.

Luffy snuck a curious peak around the room with a hand lying horizontally on his forehead. A short pink-haired boy shouldn't be hard to find at all, right? Though apparently, the number of pink-haired boys in this school was quite plentiful; how weird. Not to mention that Coby was shorter than average height too, this only made his task so much harder to accomplish.

There wasn't an open seat in sight either. No matter which way he looked, every single spot on each table was either occupied by a group of girls giggling, a group of guys talking about football, or a girl and a boy together doing something that he wasn't very sure what was at all. Finally upon reaching the end of his walk, he found neither Coby nor an available seat, not that the seat thing was much of a setback; he could always eat on the floor or on one of the vending machines if he wanted to.

He would've done so as well, if his attention didn't switch to the last table where a lone boy was sitting by himself with at least 5 empty seats around him. '_Oh, it's him!_' Immediately Luffy recognized him and sat beside him with a huge grin on his face.

"Yo! It's that late hallway guy, Usopp! What are you doing sitting here by yourself?" The boy in turn peered up at him with utter shock in his eyes and sweat dripping down the side of his head.

"Y-Yo-You; it's you! What a-are you doing here...?!" He attempted to sound brave by the last few words.

"Aah? Why can't I be here?" Luffy replied without looking at him. Instead, he was now opening his bagged lunch with his tongue slightly hanging up from his mouth.

"What do you mean by '_why can't I be here_'?!" By now, the sandwich he was chewing on was unintentionally being spattered out in Luffy's direction as he ate. "Don't you remember who I am...?!" He paused, "AND IT'S _GREAT HERO_ USOPP, NOT _LATE HALLWAY_ USOPP!"

"Zero-shaped-nose Usopp...?"

"NO!" The in question Zero-shaped-nosed Usopp yelled at him before dramatically dropping back into his seat. A few moments passed by with Luffy simply chewing on his meat until Usopp contented himself to turning his body so that he was facing away from him. "Fine, do what you want; but, I'm warning you not to bother me before I unleash my 15 thousand men on you!"

"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Luffy swallowed his tenth piece of meat as a light bulb went off over his head. "Are those egg-and-nail ossans back from the bathroom yet?"

"N-n-no, they aren't."

"AH...?! SERIOUSLY?!" His eyes popped out of their sockets for the second time that day. "You weren't kidding when you said that those ossans had serious problems after eating so many eggs and nails! You know what they need; they need some meat! Or at least something that's grilled and smoked."

"Y-Yeah," his crossed legs shook slightly when he answered back, yet not out of fear of being caught in a lie. No, it was from quite the opposite, so much in fact that he could only be so grateful that he had his back turned to the straw hat boy.

"You know what Makino told me when people have stomach problems?" He put his wealthy chunk of meat down and folded the tips of his fingers together before bringing them down in a motion to indicate pressure. "She said not to eat just raw eggs and nails all the time, since the eggs can cause salmonmeala or something like that and the nails get stuck there as you're in the bathroom! But, I know that that isn't the most important. Oi, I'll tell you and you should pass it on to the ossans too, okay?!"

The other boy cringed. Oh no...

"Well, the most important thing is not to push too hard, or else it'll only make it worse. It's true; I've tried it once and it did hurt. I don't think I recovered for a long time."

That did it for him, Usopp burst into laughter.

Luffy cocked an eyebrow at him in confusion, but it wasn't long before a gradual grin starting making its way to his face. Soon enough the two were both laughing hysterically amongst one another, oblivious to the many stares that they received from the people around them.

"Ne..." Usopp suddenly withdrew his laughter into a frown, "I don't think I know your name."

"Shishishi, that's easy! My name's Luffy, nice to meet you!"

"Aah, same here and you already know mine."

"That's right, great hippo Usopp!"

"NO!" Luffy resumed his laughing as Usopp pointed an accusing hand at him.

"Listen, Luffy..." The long-nosed boy looked away from him to stare down at his lunch; he was definitely not used to being in this sort of situation. Heck, about ninety-eight percent of the student body as well as the teachers refused to talk to him because of his oddly-shaped nose and childish tendency to lie. It was quite surprising that he even made it this far. "I'm sorry about earlier."

"What are you sorry for?" He managed to mumble in between chunks of the meat that he resumed eating in his mouth.

'_Don't mess this up..._' he shot his head up from his sight on the table to look at him with a forced frown. "About this morning, remember? You saved me from being locked in there all day and I responded by accusing you of being one of Sanji's cronies who was told to '_take care_' of me." He only mentally quoted the 'take care' with his fingers just in case this new kid ended up being one of Sanji's followers after all.

"Ah, I see...well even if I was, I wouldn't have done that after the bell had rung."

"H-huh?"

"Shishishi; never mind, it's nothing!" He laughed again as Usopp stared at him blankly when he took another bite from his giant piece of meat.

"Seriously though, I'm sorry about all of that. It was probably rude of me to lie about having fifteen thousand men-"

"NANI?! IT WAS A LIE?!" Luffy's mouth fell down to the surface of the table and anyone watching could only be grateful that the hyperactive boy had swallowed his meat prior to doing such an offensive act.

"Of course it was!" he yelled at him with a slight hint of annoyance and disbelief in his voice. He didn't know why, but with each time this boy opened his mouth, he found it less and less necessary to apologize at all. "Don't you know who I am in this school? I lie all the time and everyone hates it; that's why you're the only one sitting within talking range of me!" By now, Luffy's gaping jaw was brought back up. Usopp continued to glare at him, but quickly took it back and replaced it with widened eyes at the realization of what he just said. A moment of silence gone by between the two; only being interrupted by the chattering of students around them.

The shadow from the lights above covered Usopp's eyes from view.

"Ha...ha...ha ha HAHAHAHA!!" Suddenly, Usopp burst into uncontrollable laughter. "JUST KIDDING, BUT MAN, YOU SHOULD'VE SEEN YOUR FACE! It's like you've never been lied to or something! I'm telling you, that's the power of the GREAT HERO Usopp!" It was a slip up, he couldn't deny it; however, that didn't mean he couldn't fix it.

Tears of joy streamed down his face only to be wiped away fruitlessly by the edge of his fingers. That's right, this kid would probably be better off; might as well go with the flow. In just a few moments, he would stand up abruptly, stomp off in a cloud of curse words and never bother with him again. "Did you really think I'd apologize or something? Man, what do they put into these new students these days?"

However, to his utter horror and shock, Luffy only stared at him expressionlessly before laughing back. "Shishishi; not much!"

It was Usopp's turn to look at him as the other continued laughing and chewing on his meat happily. He was about to say something back and would've as well, but stopped when he spotted an orange-haired girl, no; _the_ orange-haired girl walking up to them. Many people who were also in the cafeteria had already put down their food just at a chance to look at her. Usopp on the other hand, put on a false grin just as Luffy finally subsided from his chuckling fest.

"Oi Nami! Did you hear about that new teacher coming tomorrow? Let me tell you, he's a huge pervert and placed second for the world record of number of skirts flipped in a day! He really wants revenge on that other guy and he's starting his next attempt on his first day tomorrow. I'd watch out if you didn't want your skirt on the front page of next week's newspaper!" He slapped his knee hysterically but Nami only shot him a second's worth of a pitied look before turning to Luffy with a sweet smile. Usopp didn't waver at all as he felt the weight of the many glares at his back for '_insulting_' such a princess.

"Hey, your name is Luffy right?" her hands rested behind her back in a cute fashion.

"Yeah, that's right," He bit into his meat again, "strange, I don't remember telling it to you." She giggled softly, causing most of the audience to sigh in content, in secret of course. Usopp imitated this by sighing comically and noticeably himself. It wasn't hard for someone like her to find out something as simple as the new student's name.

"Well, you told me in geography class that you were going to show me that thing that you were drawing. Now seems like a good time." She gracefully pulled a chair out and motioned herself to sitting beside him. Luffy swallowed his last mouthful, finishing off his lunch after what seemed like seconds.

"I said that you could see it once it's finished." He pointed out simply, "It's not finished yet." This time, it was him who was the receiving end of the glares from several people around them.

"Aw, really?" she pouted for a few moments on her side of the table, giving Usopp the chance to whisper into Luffy's ear.

"Oi, what are you doing?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Luffy, that's the orange-haired maiden of the school, Nami Mikan! I don't get why you're still able to put on this act that you're showing with her around."

"It's not an act; she's just annoying."

"What do you mean by that? She's one of the sweetest girls you'll ever meet. You'll never hear a single curse word come out of her mouth and no one in town thinks that it's even possible for her to get angry at all! And to top it all off, I'm not even lying!"

"Well if you're right, then that's what I mean."

"Huh...?" his expression relaxed, "you know, you're a strange person..."

"Thanks!!" He chuckled silently, earning a confused stare from Nami. '_H-Hey...what are they talking about now?_' for a split second, panic washed over her when she realized that it was Usopp that started the conversation. She wasn't dumb, she knew that Usopp wasn't exactly one of her worshippers and that he was also one of the biggest liars in history. It was people like him who were one of the only three people in the whole school who weren't as easy to fool as everyone else. She didn't know this new kid well, but if he was as gullible as he seemed, she could be in trouble.

"Oh yeah, Luffy..." Again, another situation that Usopp wasn't used to dealing with; lately there have been a lot of those, "before, why didn't you-"

"Excuse me, Luffy-kun...?" She couldn't take it anymore; she had to interrupt. His attention turned to her, as if just discovering that she was still beside him, "I can call you that, right?"

"Just Luffy is fine."

"Okay, _just Luffy_!" She smiled brightly as some of the people around them began laughing along with her sense of humour. "How do you like the school so far?"

"It's really cool!" Despite his irritation, Luffy couldn't help but express his excitement at that statement. "There're swirly eye-brow guys in suits, a green-haired guy who sleeps all day and a guy with a long nose who tells lies all the time!"

"Oi."

"Wow, really?" Both of them gracefully ignored Usopp. Off the top of her head, she could already name everyone on the list as a sudden weight seemed to lift off of her shoulders at his friendliness. '_Finally..._' Maybe Usopp had actually said some good things about her to him, but you could never know with someone like the titanic liar Usopp. Nami instantly made a mental note to ask him later. "Do you have a lot of friends right now, Luffy?"

"I don't know; depends on how many '_a lot_' is." Again, Nami giggled at his response.

"Well, you can't have too many friends, right?" She stood up, stretching her arms before leaning back down and offering a hand to him. "How about I show you around the school and introduce you to some of mine?" At the offer, a new wash of excitement overtook Luffy at the chance to explore the school more. Instead of throwing his usual indifferent comment towards her, his body shot up from his seat and ended up knocking Nami's offering hand to the side.

"Yosha! Let's explore the school!" His arms pumped out high in the air in happiness, causing the girl to smile slightly at his optimism.

"Good, then let's get going; lunch will be over soon!" The two started walking away from their seats, but not without Luffy looking back at Usopp and wondering why he seemed to just sit there with a slightly dampened mood.

"Oi, Usopp! Aren't you coming?" As if knocked over by a bowling ball, the far-off look in Usopp's eyes dissipated and he quickly stood up, packing his lunch back into his bag. It turns out that he didn't end up finishing even half of it. He launched his way beside Luffy, still in a slight daze of shock as Nami waited patiently for them just a meter or two away.

"A-Ah."

It wasn't much of a problem making their way out of the cafeteria, since by now over five sixths of the school were now lined up in front of the kissing booth that Porche had set up just a few minutes prior. Wanting to avoid the constant persuasions of people whining for her to join in on the '_fun_', as soon as the three left the doors, Nami did her best to turn a good 90 degree angle away from the large line of people. However, the two idiots behind her didn't let her go quietly.

"Hey, I wonder what that is. There're so many people!" Luffy gestured by peering over the scene with a hand on his forehead yet again.

"You better watch out Luffy; that's just the kissing booth." Usopp replied with a nonchalant look.

"Kissing booth? What's that?"

'_Are you serious?_' Nami almost said out loud, but didn't as Usopp voiced out her thoughts instead. "Are you serious? You don't know what it is?"

"Nope, should I?"

"Not at all; but, it would be better if you knew so you wouldn't end up being caught in one." He sighed, as if he was merely talking to an enfant who was asking about what kissing was; might as well make it more exciting. "You see Luffy, a kissing booth as you may know involves kissing but instead of just regular kissing, people charge other people to be able to kiss someone else. That someone else could be anyone since they're kept in a box for secrecy; say a lizard, or a racoon and if you're lucky, a swan."

"Whoa, really?!" Luffy's famous starry eyes appeared. "I've always wanted to see a racoon; let's go there right now!" Nami looked back at him with a disbelieving frown.

"Hang on there; I didn't say there were no consequences." Usopp lifted his index finger in front of his face and looked at him seriously. "If by chance you end up choosing the box with a scorpion in it, you'll have to kiss it and end up dying from the legendary '_I-just-kissed-a-poisonous-scorpion-disease_'."

"Well that's okay then, we'll just have to choose the box that isn't a scorpion!" Luffy shot his hand up into the air yet again, this time causing Nami to twitch slightly. At that point, it was hard to decide what to do anymore.

"No, you don't understand. I didn't say that only one of the boxes has a scorpion. Not only that but there're other bad animals in other boxes too. You'd have to be really lucky."

"That's good, I'm really lucky!"

"Are you sure? Countless brave souls have died doing this."

"Really...?! Yosh guys, let's go-"

"Don't listen to him, Luffy." Nami cut in yet again, pushing Usopp to the floor in the process. She couldn't help it, just watching the idiot make a fool of himself thanks to the long-nose was not something the nicest girl in the school was going to let happen. The fact that she ended up pushing Usopp to the floor was just an added bonus. "He's just lying, ignore him." With that, she continued on her way away from the booth, fully expecting the other two to follow her.

"H-Hey! Who said that I was lying! I bet you're just say-" Usopp had gotten back up to point an accusing finger at her, only to be tripped back down a second later. Nami immediately withdrew the leg that tripped him and stared down at the boy on the floor. '_Heh, serves him right...' _she decided, but hadn't managed another two steps before stopping.

Hang on a second...

"O-Oh, Usopp-kun! I'm so sorry, are you alright?" she regained her composure and turned back to him, kneeling at his side with a worried look on her features. Usopp, who had his face on the ground, failed to see most of her sudden change in behaviour. However, he still managed an inwardly raised brow that was directed at Luffy. In return, Luffy only watched the scene with an expressionless frown.

"Y-Yeah, I think I'm alright; thanks." He sat back up. Well, okay, tripping him really could've been an accident, but with what happened earlier...

Wanting to change the subject, Nami only smiled in relief and stood up again to look at the two excitedly. "Oh my, I almost forgot all about the tour!" She bonked her own head gently, "I think I'll show you the library first. If we run into anyone I know who isn't at the kissing booth, I'll introduce them!" Without checking to see if either Luffy or Usopp was following, she made her way forward in her best attempt to ignore any questions they may have had about what just happened.

Usopp stood up and dusted himself off, turning to the side when he noticed Luffy walking past him with the same frown on his face. He sped up his walking a bit in order to catch up before whispering in his ear silently.

"Oi, what was that?"

"I don't know," Luffy half lied, but then a grin appeared on his face as he walked ahead once again, "at least she isn't as annoying now!"

---

"Nani, why not?"

"I'm sorry Luffy-san...I don't have time to do anything today." Coby turned his attention to the ground nervously, Luffy not being the only one that was disappointed in his answer. "I promised to help someone out with their homework tonight."

"It's not that but," Luffy pouted once more, his usual optimistic attitude failing, "this is the first time Makino's given me the day off." The last part of his complaint was mostly drowned out by the sounds of chattering students around them, hurrying to get out of the school. It was natural at the end of the day and one could only wonder why the two were practically standing still in the way of everyone else.

Coby fidgeted once more, "Yeah, I'm really sorry. I don't think I'll have any time available tomorrow either..." This was a new thing for him. Never had he had to actually break out bad news to anyone else; before, it just wasn't necessary. In the past, he did mind having to go out and complete the '_chores_' he was asked of , but now that he had someone else to grieve over that fact with, it only made the whole situation more depressing. Unless of course he...

'_No, no, no! That's impossible; no way!_' he shook his head out of any thoughts of doing the inevitable, shooting his sight back up to give the straw-hat boy a smile. "Maybe you could find someone else to go with you. I heard that you were seen with Nami Mikan and Usopp Sogeki at lunch..." Coby wasn't entirely sure if the whole thing was rumour or not, but hopefully Luffy did have some form of contact with them. If it was true, then how he managed to meet the most popular girl in school and the biggest liar in all time respectively, was all a mystery to him.

"Oh yeah, wasteful hippo Usopp...!" Luffy gave out a slight laugh, "I could ask him! Thanks Coby!" He gained back the characteristic of acting like a little boy given a life-time supply of candy, and ran off back into the school with new found anxiety. "See you tomorrow!"

"Y-Yeah." The smaller boy waved back and couldn't help but smile at Luffy's innocence at times. After knowing him for a little more than a day, he already knew that he probably wasn't as oblivious as he seemed, but the fact that he acted against that was undeniable. As long as he didn't say anything upsetting, Luffy seemed to act like nothing more than a hyperactive friend who had an obsession with meat. He knew that he just wanted to help, but still...it's not like he really could do anything against what was thrown onto him for such a long time. They were both just teenagers, and believing that either one of them could change every bit of wrong that crossed them was like wanting every single toy manufactured in the world.

In other words, it was nothing more than a spoiled little girl's dream. It was _impossible_.

Still, a little part inside Coby wanted that dream to come true.

---

Usopp couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe it. If Naruto was with him right now, he wouldn't be able to believe it either.

"P-PLEASE...! SOMEONE, HELP ME!" the boy with a slightly high-pitched voice yelled from inside the locker, though it was pretty easy to tell that everyone had already left the school and was now on their way home. Even if anyone was left, his voice was muffled out by the several coats hanging in his way. Only minutes before, he was rushing out of class just like everyone else, but had accidentally crashed into one of Sanji's closer friends, Carne. Not that it hurt Carne in any way as opposed to Usopp flying a meter back and his bag making an even further trip across the hall. Why weren't teachers ever around when you needed them?

Carne, making sure that the halls were still somewhat filled with students, bashfully pulled him up by the head and effectively stuffed him into a random locker. By coincidence, it was the locker that was right beside the one that Luffy had taken apart that morning. While being stuffed in, he made a mental note to himself that the locker to his left was still not repaired.

Usopp finally stopped attempting to bang against the metal door; it was no use, there wasn't any room to do anything! He was just wasting energy. '_I should at least try to get someone's attention without making myself hurting myself like this..._' If he was lucky, a janitor may have already heard him and went to get the pliers to pry the lock open. Yeah, he knew that was farfetched, but what else could he do? Yelling would've been slightly less tiring, but it was true that that would just waste the time he had before he became dehydrated; and he couldn't keep yelling all day. If only his backpack wasn't thrown to the other end of the hallway...he had a water bottle or two inside.

"Usopp! Are you here?!"

'_L-Luffy...! Thank goodness!_' relief ran through his mind at the thought of not suffocating in a locker for another couple of hours like he was forced to only a week ago. Now all he had to do was ask his assistant to free him again. Well, not that he couldn't get out himself or anything, of course. "Ruuphhhie, owure herph!" The sleeve of one of the jackets wedged itself in between his jaw and blocked out the volume. Oh yeah, there was that problem to deal with. It would've helped if he actually had any room to free himself or at least a harder wall to hit against to get his attention.

'_Wait a minute..._' he told himself when a slightly blinding bit of light shone at his left eye. He only turned his head due to the lack of space and came face to face with a hole the size of his eye, and suddenly remembered. '_The locker to my left isn't repaired!_'

Quickly, his hands scrambled to the floor of the locker and felt its way around for a pencil. '_Bingo!_' He smiled at the feel of a short pencil at his fingertips and took out a piece of paper out from his pocket and began writing.

Luffy walked through the empty halls of the school, hand on the hat on top of his head as he looked from left to right for any sign of a person. At this point, he didn't even care much if he didn't find Usopp; as long as he found someone to go with him, he'd be happy. Though, if that person was Usopp, that would be cooler.

'_I wonder why everyone always leaves so early._' He started contemplated to himself; school was boring sometimes, then he'd be able to go on adventures with new people. Why would that make anyone want to leave? He never remembered having a chance to go to one until now, not that he was complaining. He didn't know why, but something in his mind just kept telling him_ 'school is boring._' He shook the voice out; he didn't like it.

"Hey-" He stopped when something painfully poked the opening of his right ear. Irritated and curious, the palm of his hand reached up to feel whatever it was and realized that the culprit was a small paper airplane. Any smaller and it really would've gone into his ear.

'_Hey, I wonder if it's sent by the magic genie!_' He excitedly picked it out and opened it, not considering for one second that whoever threw it may have been a regular person.

"_If you believe in genies, pry open the celestial door on the side of the locker of gold that is emitting life._" Of course, to most people, this would've made absolutely no sense, so surely it didn't mean anything to Luffy, right?

"AHA...! I knew it; the genie does exist!" Wait until everyone hears about this! He didn't like it when people didn't believe him, but now they could just eat their words and realize how right he was; Usopp especially. The genie probably used his magical powers to send this to him as thanks for keeping his existence a secret. He wasn't stupid; he knew that genies were touchy about who knew about them. With this in mind, Luffy dashed his way to the same locker that he took apart only that same morning before and only barely managed to stop with a cloud of dust in his wake.

Now, open the door that was emitting life...that meant living right? '_That's right; I have to open the door that's living!_' That shouldn't be hard; in fact, he could hear that same breathing sound from that morning coming from the locker to the left of the locker of gold.

"AHHH!" with the same fashion as he did only hours before, Usopp effectively fell out right at the same moment as the door that was still in Luffy's hands. This time however, he had several coats and hats wrapped around his body which caused him to land in quite a peculiar position.

"Oh, there you are genie of the golden locker! Let me guess, you had to hide in this locker after I took apart the other one, am I right?!" Usopp peered up to him with an annoyed look.

"Oi Luffy, relax; it's just me." He stood up while untangling his body away from the random clothing. "I only wrote that because I couldn't risk one of Sanji's followers getting the note instead."

"Huh? You wrote that letter?"

"Yes, because I heard your voice and knew you were in the hallway somewhere. If someone else had happened to find the note instead, they would've just thrown it away because I was writing in _your_ language." He pointed a matter-of-fact finger at him.

"I see," Luffy crossed his arms, "so you're the magical genie of the locker of gold."

"NO!"

"Why didn't you just tell me, Usopp? We're friends, aren't we?"

"This may be a little hard for you to understand Luffy, but I'm not a genie." Usopp turned away with a serious expression. "And I never said we were friends."

"Oh come on Usopp, don't lie to me; you're a genie alright." His crossed arms kept themselves up and he nodded his head slightly with a confident look. Whatever Usopp added in the end, Luffy either didn't hear it or he just chose not to reply.

The other boy sighed. '_Great, and the one time he doesn't believe me either...what's with this guy?_' Usopp looked back at him in exasperation, matching his confident look with a stern one. "No, I'm not; and even if I was, which I'm not, I didn't have to tell you because we _aren't_ friends. I know I gave you more advice than a simple acquaintance should've done, but it was only natural." His shoulders trembled slightly, but he kept a straight face. "You saved me from the locker this morning, so I was repaying you back. There's no other relation between us."

"Aa, I agree; we're not friends." Luffy looked back at him with complete cooperation. "It's much better to be nakama."

For a moment, Usopp's eyes widened at the groundless offer but it was short-lived and otherwise, unnoticeable.

Despite this, he didn't say a word. '_S-Say something d*mnit...it's n-nothing!_' He hated this; since when could he, the great hero Usopp, be rendered speechless? It was inhuman, it was unheard of, and no one expected it to happen, so why did he start now?

"Besides," Luffy continued while seemingly oblivious to the other boy's inner turmoil, "I saved you from the locker just now so you owe me again."

"Eh?"

"I have my first day off today from the bar." He shot his famous grin at Usopp. "Yosh, this is perfect!"

----------

Number of words excluding Author's Notes and '---'s: 10,920

Yay, second chapter...yes it's long and I apologize for that. Please review if you've already gotten this far into the story and again yes, it might take a while.

As a side note, I don't release a chapter unless I'm well into the next one since it motivates me to at least have something to show if my writing does hit a block. If it ever happens that I'd have to do that, then I'd know when I need some serious advice. If I'm not asking for help, then you know that I'm not doing too badly. See you all later then.

Oh yeah, and just to tell you; nakama means _friend_, _companion_, _crewmate_ and _someone you care a lot about as much as family_.

Anyone that reads this, any suggestions on a more luring summary for the story that I could write?

~ CupidKirby (TwisterKirby)


	3. Servitude

Guess what, guys? It turns out I'm not dead and therefore able to release another chapter!

I don't really have anything to say about my huge absence, except that I had been on a hiatus from watching One Piece for a while. Quite truthfully, I'm still on about episode 325 though I am aware of quite a lot of things that happen after due to my forum browsing. Also, **my writing style may have changed from the last two chapters**; either in actual narration or with my level of familiarity in this story.

I could've sworn that I wrote about three thousand or so words already for this chapter, but they somehow became deleted from my hard drive so I had to start over. Oh well, crying wouldn't get me anywhere. Enough talk; action!

**Disclaimer**: One Piece is not mine (why don't people just say that anymore?).

**Chapter 3 (Finished 04/20/2010)**

Nami sat impatiently against the walls of the room, her legs crossed and bobbing up and down. She still had a major migraine from earlier that day; what with that long-nosed liar whispering outlandish tales to the new student every time she spoke, which was quite often, and the starry-eyed expression that the idiot would wear a second later. It amazed her how he could do that; she would've probably already conducted some experiment on his eyes if her reputation had allowed her to do so.

As she had finally made it to the library, very few of her male friends were actually there. And, she was willing to bet that almost three-quarters of them didn't just up and get out of there into the hall for the simple reason that they either didn't hear, or had rambunctious girlfriends. When she finally spotted a familiar head of dark blue hair and proceeded to smile and walk over however, the new kid-Luffy-yelled out in excitement and ran off into the isle of picture books. Usopp hesitantly followed in an attempt to advise him to keep it down.

Picture books, really? At that point, she nearly gave up on helping this kid out. If he ended up kicked out or arrested and put into prison for life for making such a mess, it wasn't her problem, was it? She should just tell him that it was his _fault_ in the first place; but no, that wouldn't be good for her. She could only sigh and follow after them.

It didn't end up that bad, actually. Especially when Nami bent down to pick up one of the discarded books Luffy was throwing around, only to read the title of one of the only books based on her favorite past time which she had never seen before in this library. She just couldn't put it down. The rest of the lunch was spent with her leisurely sitting on a couch while keeping a noble eye for anyone who could spot them and spread gossip around that Nami was 'slacking' on the job. Thank goodness the library was nearly empty.

That was then and this is now. Of course, the pain in her head was no reason for why she was here. Why _was_ she here?

"_Hey Nami, I scheduled something for you today."_

Why?

"_W-What are you talking about? You see me everyday…what's so different this time?" She tried to smile innocently to hide it._

"_It's not that anything's changed," she leaned forward slightly on her elbows, "I've been meaning to for a while, actually."_

Without consulting me?! I ought to-

"_You've been stuttering again, Nami."_

'_Well, big thanks to you, Nojiko; really._' Nami cursed in her mind bitterly. That's why she was now sitting in the middle of a waiting room, watching the seconds tick by until the dreaded time when she would be called. She was absolutely, one-hundred percent _not_ crazy. Yet every few months or so, Nojiko would suddenly start sprouting out serious innuendos and send her here again. Each time she came, the person she would see would be different.

The first was only a couple weeks after what had happened. She was nine, and her sister found her sitting atop of _that_ hill, muttering fruitless words about how she'd save everyone. In her state, she didn't -couldn't- resist Nojiko's rants, and ended up face to face with a stern-looking lady with glasses, blonde hair tied up neatly in a bun, and an unhealthy obsession with soap. Needless to say, Nami drove that woman crazy the second she came in the door with a dirt stain all over her small dress.

The second didn't come again until 3 years later, well after she had learned how to use her body and sweet smile in order to get what she wanted. She never did anything drastic, but it gave them something to talk about until the hour was up. It helped that all the ones she was assigned to since then were males, after the apparent complaint that her first had filed against her masculinity.

They kept coming and going, but she did remember one that was particularly loathsome. He had a large build and figure, and was always looming over her and whispering things about how she would never escape. If he wasn't so intimidating and somehow comfortable in the dark corner of her life, she would've simply punched him in the gut like she had with some of the others. Instead, she simply called her sister on it and told her to switch.

She learned not to lie to them; it was their job to catch on to that kind of stuff. Of course, that didn't mean that she couldn't _obscure_ some of the truth. And she had to say, she was pretty good at it.

"Ah, Nami-san!"

The girl addressed widened her eyes at the familiar voice and immediately stopped the childish charade in her legs, before turning to the woman standing by the door way.

"M-Ms. Nico?!" Her mouth opened in shock at the sight of her Geography teacher in a white suit and a solid gold nametag across the right side of her chest. Too bad she didn't have a gold nametag; it would be nice…hehe…

"Well then, this is interesting," the tall woman smiled, interrupting Nami from her silent chanting, "come on in, Nami-san." The orange-haired girl quickly snapped out of it, and stood up to follow the teacher.

"I decided to come out here and meet my next patient in person," she looked over her shoulder at the teen, answering one of the questions she held in her mind. "I always do that with my newer ones."

"Excuse me, Ms. Nico, but aren't you…?" Darn it, she was stuttering again. It had been happening since she left school yesterday and she could only be so glad that it had chosen to pop up again only once the weekend had arrived. Sitting in that library and reading that book…it was all that new kid's fault.

"Yes, I'm a school teacher too," her smile nearly grew wider in response to Nami's gaping mouth, "I only do this as a part-time job when I'm not occupied. And I thought we established this, Nami-san, that you shall address me as Robin." Neither said another word until they were both in Robin's office and seated in a room filled with motivational posters.

'_Challenges…? I face them!'_

'_It doesn't hurt to be different as it does to be the same.'_

'_This environment accepts everyone despite sexual orientation.'_

Nami cringed slightly at them, only to have her teacher chuckle softly. "Those are for some of my younger patients."

"I-I can see that…"

"Of course, they aren't mine. I prefer to accept the notion that the sun shall burn out one day, become a black hole, and take out the galaxy with it. We'd all be doomed."

"Yeah, then we'll just have to escape." Nami shrugged.

"I see…" Nico Robin smiled, and wrote a line of text onto her note pad. "You're a very bright person, Nami-san."

"Geography's my best subject." She smirked, before it fell into a slight frown again.

"Yes, I'd imagine so. I prefer History however. It's always changing depending on how man intends to write it, yet the results are always the same."

"Isn't that the truth?" Nami couldn't help it, but she started sliding down in her chair out of habit anyway. The conversation was a lot less abrasive than she was used to, and she always enjoyed talking to her teacher once in a while. But, having her here in this room as her mental superior was just weird; it would take a while for her blank tone to rearrange itself.

"Do you like my classes, Nami-san?"

"You're a good teacher, though…" Stutter again.

"You already know everything?" Robin's smile wore down slightly as she peered down at her paper in order to check another box on the survey.

"Yeah…" Nami smiled out of spite despite where she feared this talk was leading to. It was interesting really, having Robin being able to tread further into her life in a couple minutes than most could after hours. She could only be so grateful that Robin wasn't bringing her attitude in school into this talk.

"You know, this report says that you have episodes of stuttering every few months, is this true?"

"Yes, it is."

"Hmm, you're not stuttering now."

"This is being paid for, Robin." The thought of the one hundred and fifty dollars Nojiko was spending on something so trivial was already making Nami scoff. She knew what her sister would be eating for the next month and it just wasn't necessary. She would have to make a trip or two tonight in order to pay for it. "Stuttering would be wasting time."

"Perhaps we shall find someone to pay you for not stuttering?"

"That is what's happening right now." She had to admit though; the idea was tempting…

"It started yesterday, did it not?"

"Yeah, a little after lunch."

"I didn't think the new student would be that aggravating." Nami found herself sitting back up when the statement reached her ears.

"It's not that, Robin!" She leaned forward in her chair, and for once let the feeling of irritation in the whole situation run through her. "I found this book, alright? It was a book filled with pictures of maps and how to draw them. Normally I wouldn't have been reading such a book but I just _had_ to show him the library, and he just _had_ to throw it right in my direction! If it wasn't for that idiot, I wouldn't be back here!" She didn't know why, but she had the sudden urge to run up to Luffy first thing on Monday and give him a big and painful punch to the face. Not that she was allowed to.

"Eee, I suppose that's the case…do you feel angry?"

Nami sighed before finally calming down and resting her back to the chair. "No, but it's still all his fault."

"Do you like maps, Nami-san?" Robin rested her chin on the palm of her hand.

"_So you like maps, Nami?" There was a smile and ruffle of her hair. She looked up cheerfully._

"_Yeah…! Of course I do!"_

"Yes."

"I see…" One last scribbled on the notepad, "your time is up, Nami-san. I'll see you at school on Monday."

-----

Usopp paced up and down the lone streets of Fushia, particularly in front of a certain house. It was strange really, after only being around Luffy for less than 24 hours or so, it was becoming a bit unbearable to just wonder around his house alone all day like he used to. Not that he was a nerd who stayed indoors playing video games and surfing the internet for inappropriate pictures of cartoons or anything like that, but it's just that he never had anywhere to go. Aside from his usual rounds to his job at the grocery store and perhaps a walk around the neighborhood in order to chance at spreading some rumors, he simply didn't do much.

That was why he didn't really have any excuse when Luffy decided to drag him along on his outing yesterday. That and the fact that a man never went back on his word, especially concerning paying back a debt that he owed someone.

Okay, maybe that was a lie; he just enjoyed actually being around someone.

"Prompt number 56…" Usopp whispered to himself while scratching a well-sharpened and used pencil against a small notebook. He immediately put the two items down before crouching down in a shivering position.

"_Oh no, look guys! There's Usopp right outside our doorstep and he's shivering!"_

"_Luffy! N-No, don't rescue me…I can handle it."_

"_No way, Usopp…! You're my friend and I can't stand not playing with you!"_

"_Well, if you insist then I suppose I could play with you ag-"_

"Oi, Usopp!" Luffy called from a window of the house upon noticing his friend outside, shaking Usopp from his dramatic performance.

"L-L-Luffy…! N-No, don't rescue me! I can handle it-"

"Keep it down! Makino says she can't work with all the noise outside!" With that, his head popped back into the window.

"W-W-W-WAIT A SECOND…!" Usopp yelled out from in between his pose, running towards the edge of the sidewalk and climbing up the fence. He landed squarely on his feet, almost tripping in the process, but managed to make his way across the yard and start knocking loudly at the door.

"You know Usopp, if you wanted to help, you should've just said so." Luffy looked to Usopp with a half disappointed, half annoyed expression on his face as he carried a bucket filled with plates.

"That's what I've been trying to do all day!" the other teen yelled out in exasperation, almost dropping the two glasses of water he was holding. Luffy simply laughed and waved him off.

"Then it's fine, it's fine!" He grinned once more before disappearing from view into the back kitchen area. Usopp placed the two glasses in front of the guests and sighed; he'd learned by now that it was absolutely ludicrous to question Luffy. One of the reasons being not only that he couldn't answer any of them straightly, but the fact that his attitude just made it too impossible to feel inferior. It was ironic how one of the first people he _associates_ with would be that way.

Yeah, he still didn't consider Luffy a friend exactly. They simply talked to each other for the sole reason that they have no one else to do so with; at least that was what Usopp thought about what just took place. When first comes to first and the situation called for support, neither would provide it.

'_Yeah…that's what's going on…_' Usopp smiled bitterly and proceeded to move on to the next table.

A noise erupted from the front of the bar.

People screamed, and the light hanging from the ceiling shook.

The inner thoughts of Usopp's mind as well as his wiping of the table with a cloth were both interrupted by the now broken half of the restaurant door that flung across the room, only missing him by mere inches. "D-D-Dangerous…!" His eyes popped out of their sockets at the sight of the door breaking on contact of the counter behind him, just where he was standing seconds before.

He slowly turned around, the part of his legs which weren't visible from behind the table shaking with all the fear pent up inside them. The rate they were going only increased when he saw three main frames from in the doorway, and a dozen or so smaller ones behind them.

"Oi, shitty bastards…! What did you do with Nami-san?!" the cry of the figure right in the center radiated from the entrance, causing some of the glasses on the tables to shatter and the hinges on all the windows in the room to break open. Surprisingly, Usopp was the only one still standing from the outburst. Others had either rushed to a chair or were crouching on the ground.

Sanji made his steps hard and stiff as he slowly walked in, the true anger and rage which filled his eyes only becoming visible under the light of the bar. He quickly scanned the few amounts of people scattered around in fear, and realizing that none of them had any business, silently muttered out a "Get out of here". No one wasted any time following that order, and the restaurant quickly emptied out.

Usopp attempted to run out along with everyone else, only to have his collar snatched by the one man that he feared the most at that moment. From the sudden stop, he fell onto the floor, the bar's apron still attached securely around his waist.

"Oh, not you again…" Patty, the figure who was beside Sanji while breaking the door, muttered with an indifferent look. "Want me to take care of him?" The blonde held up an arm, stopping Patty from advancing any further upon Usopp. He lowered his head, eyeing the white fabric around Usopp's waist.

"So, you work here, huh?" It wasn't a question, it was a fact that Sanji had imposed onto Usopp as the other 12 teenagers behind them started filing into the restaurant. That simple statement had sealed his fate, that's what he knew.

The group swiftly advanced onto the limp figure of Usopp, as he was slowly raised once again on the collar by Sanji's strong hand. This was it; he was going to take a blow and go down for his fifteen-thousand men.

"I'll ask again," he unintentionally breathed out a slight puff of smoke on Usopp's face, causing the slightly shorter teen to cough under his breath, "where are you keeping Nami-san?"

The long-nosed boy shook for another moment but quickly obliged when he peered down at Sanji's rage-filled look. His legs presumed shaking once again despite not having to support anything. "W-What are you talking a-about, Sanji? I haven't seen h-her since yesterday!" The shaking spread from his legs to his stomach and upper-body.

"You expect me to believe…" Sanji released one hand from its grip on Usopp's collar in order to light another cigarette, "…a liar like you?!" Usopp screamed slightly at the outburst, so much so that even his nose was now shaking in fear. Before the blond had a chance to throw the limp teen on the ground, a voice broke out, "may I help you, sir?"

He lowered Usopp to the ground, whom immediately fell motionless against the floor of the bar as soon as his feet touched solid ground. Sanji faced the owner of the voice with his cigarette still in tact.

"If you want something to eat, I'm afraid it would be better to ask." A woman with dark green hair stepped out from behind the counter, wiping her hands on the apron of the dress. She wore a hardened frown which held a slight tint of excitement in it. It's been awhile since anything interesting has been going on here, aside from the recent arrival of course.

"So, you're Makino, the owner of this bar, right?" Sanji lifted two fingers in order to give his mouth a chance to breathe out a puff of smoke. "You aren't exactly popular around here. It's a shame that a wonderful lady must have such a bad reputation."

"That's arguable, but I suppose that's not the reason that you're here, am I correct?"

"I think you will understand as well as anyone else that when a man's woman is threatened, kidnapped, or hurt, that that man cannot forgive the perpetrator." Part of Makino's frown disappeared to substitute with a cheerful smile.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe that I'm threatened, kidnapped, or hurt, so you can make yourselves useful and leave."

Sanji scoffed inwardly; she was making fun of him. Unfortunately, the other dozen men behind them didn't take it as lightly.

"What was that, you bi-?!"

"Oi, Makino…!" Luffy ran out into the scene from the kitchen entrance, covered with a wide range of dishwashing bubbles from head to toe. "I think your sink's broken or something!"

"H-Hey, it's that straw-hat guy!"

"You mean that new student who talked badly about Sanji-sama?!"

"Yeah, that's him!"

A loud burst of chatter immediately overtook the back half of the room, with only Patty, Carne, and Sanji himself keeping silent. At the accelerating volume, the swirly-eyebrow teen only bit down on his cigarette harder and harder. "Be quiet; all of you!" They quickly settled down at their leader's booming voice, before erupting in another charade of sound, this time of apologies.

"We're very sorry, Sanji!"

"Please forgive us!"

"We have to make up for it somehow!"

"Oi, you guys-" Patty tried.

"We will never do it again!"

Beneath the shadow of the light, Sanji found his frown widening. He wasn't dumb; he knew when a woman needed rescuing and when Carne had received an ominous call claiming the kidnap of Nami around these areas, he wouldn't miss on the chance to rescue her. Not only would it be really shitty if someone else beat him to it, but in no way would he allow her to be hurt or taken. The fact that his own men were acting so obnoxiously just to please him would be equivalent to the thought of him saving Nami just for the thrill of the reputation he'd gain. He didn't doubt that they cared very little for the actual goal at hand. That is, if Nami was actually kept here like the voice on the telephone claimed.

It was strange, then; these people behind the counter.

"…Are you having trouble with your group?"

Sanji turned his vision from the fearful teens to Luffy, who now had a frown on his face despite the bubbles clinging to his skin. Somehow, Sanji found his once deep frown toned down to a simple look of indifference. He'd been suspecting it for a while, but he still needed to try it just to be sure. "Hey shitty straw-hat, I only came to get Nami back. Don't you dare put down my gang just to make yourself seem innocent."

"I'm not. And we don't have Nami. Leave." His frown deepened upon eyeing the limp Usopp on the floor as Sanji released another puff of smoke. The dark gleam in his eyes and the blunt way he stated it made it very unlikely for the situation he was given to be true.

He had to face it; the kid didn't have Nami. Sanji turned slightly as if in the motion to leave, ignoring the chatter of the others until both of their ears caught on to something in their conversation.

"I know how we'll pay Sanji back!"

"How…?"

"Tell us!"

"We just have to raid this place and get Nami-chan back for real!"

"That sounds like a great idea!"

"Let's go!"

"O-Oi, you guys…!" Sanji's eyes widened upon the notion, turning his body through the rest of the one-eighty just in time to see the teens rush past him, ignoring any words their leader yelled in the process. He turned again with the plan to stop them midway, but froze as the first man made connection with the presence of the straw-hat.

Luffy side-stepped to the right from the first blow and made his way left again at the second, the soap from his body whisking off him. By then, the other eleven teenagers had reached him, bringing out the knives that Sanji didn't know they had.

It happened so quickly; no one could blame the four remaining souls for not being able to do anything.

The straw-hat boy bluntly grabbed the first teen by the head and skidded his way off the top of the next, landing neatly on his feet on the opposite side in which the others were facing. Before any of them could process what had happened, he brought the arm that held the man up and swung him around in a full semi-circle. With a scream from the adrenaline and a couple grunts at the surprise blow, all twelve boys were knocked down onto the ground, unconscious.

Luffy proceeded to stand up from the crouch he was in to duck from the bodies of men flying to the ground just seconds before. He only tripped down again when his foot reached a spot on the floor which held debris of soap that had fallen from his body earlier. He attempted to up himself again, and fell on his stomach. Stupid sink and its mystery soap.

"Hey, Makino…! Take care of that mystery sink!" Luffy gasped out when he finally straightened himself by hanging on to the edge of the countertop.

With a slightly bemused expression, Makino nodded and rushed to the kitchen and away from the scene and Luffy, stepping over the motionless bodies of the other teenagers. Sanji remained silent while the faces of the two beside him contorted into a mix of irritation and shock.

"That kid is stronger than he looks…" Patty's expression twisted into that of a smirk.

"Maybe we should get out of here?"

"Nah, it's been a while since we had a challenge." Patty cracked his knuckles and proceeded to make his way to the much shorter teen. Sanji didn't stop them; the pressure on the butt of his cigarette continued to increase.

Luffy turned to Sanji when the two were midway across the room, "you know, you're not a very good captain."

The cigarette finally snapped in half.

Unexpectedly, instead of showing anger when the blonde's face was raised into the light, the stern yet small frown was still etched onto his face. He spat out the remains of the stick in the garbage and proceeded to pick up the other half. "No, I suppose I'm not."

"Sorry, but Nami really isn't here."

"Yeah, I know." Patty and Carne continued to gain on the dark haired boy. It was obvious that they weren't aware of the outside conversation. Silence took over the two.

"…Carne received a call a while ago saying that Nami-san was being kept here." He dumped the cigarette into the can, turning back to Luffy. "I don't know what he was trying to pull, but apparently he knows our every move."

Luffy looked slightly confused for a moment but nodded. At a sudden jerk, he nonchalantly reached up and punched the dark figure that had loomed behind him.

Patty flew across the opposite half of the room, crashing into Carne. The two bounced off a table, breaking its counter in half and doing a double flip in the air out the window. The moment they had both gotten up from the impact, Luffy knew that they weren't as weak as the other twelve.

"Sorry about the mess," Sanji stated once the two started mumbling curses from outside, "and dump some cold water on that guy, would you?" He motioned his head towards Usopp, who had apparently fainted during the whole ordeal. '_That's no good. I have to teach him not to faint._' Luffy noted to himself and grinned at the blond.

"Yosh, I'll see you at school then!" Sanji continued stalking out the door, without any indication to imply that he heard him. Luffy didn't notice, and went to Usopp to attempt to wake him up. For a guy who claimed to have fifteen thousand men working for him, he could only hope that they were a lot nicer than the ones Sanji had. Even if they weren't, at least they'd have a reason to with their constipation problems anyway.

"You're an interesting guy, you know that?" A low voice emitted from the very back of the room. Luffy turned his head towards the sound, before shooting another grin at the owner.

"Yo…! It's the sleeping earring guy!" Completely forgetting about the task at hand to wake his sleeping friend, he quickly made himself a seat at the table that he was sitting at. "So I guess you saw all of that, huh?"

"Yup." The moss-haired teen yawned. As long as he wasn't questioning why a teen was in a bar under-aged or ask him to leave, he didn't mind talking to him.

"That Sanji guy is a lot cooler than I thought. Usopp fainted and missed it all though…too bad." Luffy started pouting, peering at the limp figure on the ground that was, by now, drooling in his sleep. "I have to get him to not do that if he's going to be my friend."

"Ah, so you're Usopp's friend now." Zoro leaned back in the seat, almost breaking it in the process if it wasn't for his one leg propped on the ground. Indeed it wasn't something he heard everyday, considering how secluded the biggest liar in town was. "He's an unusual choice for your first friend."

"Shishishi, I thought so too!" Luffy laughed, causing his companion to raise an eyebrow at him.

"You have a knack to do that to the strangest people, I guess." The dark-eyed boy contained his laughter in order to grin at him and shrug. A comfortable silence followed afterward. The only times it was broken was when Zoro let out a yawn, or when the sounds of Makino in the back kitchen radiated throughout the restaurant.

"I would watch out if I were you." Zoro finally said upon remembering the words that the swirly-eyebrow man muttered. "And tell that woman to watch out too."

"Ah, you mean Nami?"

"Yeah." Luffy looked to him, before forming his lips into a pout and sprawling himself up against his chair in a tired and irritated fashion.

"Nah," his voice came out in almost a whiny tone, "she can handle it herself. It's her business." He stuck out his tongue while facing the doorway of the bar. "I'll help if she asks me to."

A frown made its way onto Zoro's face. Soon after it followed a parade of other negative emotions which ultimately stacked up to an expression which most people would've thought was equivalent to the green-haired teen proceeding to punch him. Luffy continued staring at the door, seemingly oblivious to whatever the man beside him thought. The seconds ticked away anyway.

Instead when the time reached its tensest point, Zoro flicked his shoulders and a smirk formed on his lips, "that's what I was thinking too."

"Zoro," Luffy stated after another moment, "are you strong?"

"Strong enough to take you on and win, probably." Luffy stuck a finger in his nose as if deep in thought. He was interesting, indeed.

"Okay, I've made my decision!" The straw-hat boy bounded up from his chair, knocking it across the floor just before it crashed against the wall. He had both his fists pumped into the air and ran into the kitchen, out of Zoro's line of eye sight. Looking irritated at first, the other teen shrugged and took another gulp of his drink.

A crash was heard from the kitchen, along with the cries of "LUFFY, YOU BROKE _ANOTHER_ TABLE?!" followed by an "AH…?! How did that happen?!?!" Zoro felt a strange sensation climbing its way up his throat, and before he could stop it, a moderate laugh left his mouth.

"Let's see what you're thinking, Straw-hat Luffy."

-----

The door to the house slammed and a blue haired woman working on the stove turned her head slightly at the sound. She resisted the notion of rolling her eyes when noisy foot steps made their way down the hall and the yell of "_Nojiko!_" reached her ears. '_I guess she's back._'

"How was it?" She asked, surprisingly calm. Nami rounded the corner into the kitchen with a slight frown on her face. It was different seeing her sister walk in after a session only being a bit irritated rather than emotion raging mad like she usually was. It only made the blue-haired girl more curious when, without a word, Nami sat herself onto one of the chairs. She winced upon the feeling of the ominous creak it made.

"It was fine," She looked up, "it was my Geography teacher this time."

"Your Geography teacher…?" The older of the two raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Interesting…"

"D-Don't you start too, Nojiko…!" The orange-haired girl bit her lip and rested back in her spot, "And you know how I feel about you blowing off so much money just to send me to some psycho ward."

"Yeah, yeah," she waved her off, "I'm your older sister, so you can't do anything about it anyway." She turned around with a cheerful smile, only to see her sister's tongue stuck out right at her and a frown on her face. It was cute how she once claimed to have trashed everything, yet still maintained that particular trait. "You had two calls today by the way."

"Oh…?"

"I'm surprised it wasn't more." She turned back to the stove.

"Spit it out, Nojiko!"

"The first one was from this boy named Daisuke. He wanted to know if-"

"Next." Nami spat out as if her sister were a message box in her phone.

"Oh, and I suppose you would like the message to be deleted?"

"Okay, what did he…?" She stopped mid-sentence and cursed herself once again.

"He mentioned something about a kissing booth and wanted to meet you on the roof of the school on Monday to talk about it."

"What time?"

"Right at lunch, so you don't have to spend your early morning at school or anything."

"Well, I'm not going." Her head slid back against the tip of the chair-board as her hand covered half of her face in a tired fashion. "I'm supposed to look after the new student for the rest of the week."

"Girl or boy?"

"Boy."

"Ah…I can see why you're so tired then." Nami sighed. No, it was actually the exact opposite from what her sister was probably thinking, and about ten times as exasperating. She almost wished he'd just bow down at her feet like everyone else and be done with it, and didn't hang out with equally as annoying and strangely observant people. Next thing she'd know, he'd probably become best buddies with that creepy moss-head earring-wearing Zoro, who always seemed to be silently staring at everyone even when he was taking one of his many naps. '_Haha, no way…_'

"The second one…was a little different." She lifted the pan off the stove and lowered the heat, spreading out the noodles she cooked onto a large plate. "It was from Sanji."

Nami up-righted her position and a nearly visible look of shock and almost horror crossed her face, "Sanji? What did he want?"

"He called asking me if you were alright, and that if any '_shitty idiot with a straw hat_' bothered you, that he'll kick his ass for you." Nojiko stated with empty quotation marks at the phrase that obviously didn't come from her.

"_How dare he refuse that cute smile!"_

Out of nowhere, a booming voice filled Nami's head. The impact of it caused her to groan and rest her head on her crossed arms against the table. She didn't feel too well.

Sanji was always like that, overprotective of her if she happened to be standing within talking distance of any other boy. It was aggravating how catastrophic he took everything. Did he ever think what would happen if there ever really was an emergency and she didn't take him seriously?

Her sister managed to send her a questioning look even when facing the opposite wall, but didn't say anything for several seconds. It didn't matter, Nami could tell and opened her mouth to answer.

"_Maybe she's losing her touch."_ Another boom.

"New student." The orange blob of hair finally replied with a strained voice and gritted teeth. She could handle it…she could take it…she wasn't weak and damn well she will…

"Ah…" A strange look crossed the taller woman's features at the mention of a trait as strange as a straw-hat, but her mouth continued on as she remembered the rest of the call, "he told you to call back immediately…"

"_How interesting…! That book is your dream."_ An annoying and obnoxious laughter filled her mind, and that was enough.

Nojiko was interrupted when a sound emerged from the limp body on the table in front of her. It was a cross between gagging and coughing, and before the girl let herself emit a second one, she dashed out of the room and made head to the path towards the bathroom. A hard frown capsized her face and ceased to change when she calmly walked to the dinning room with plates in hand and the sound of the toilet flushing only a couple meters away. However, the small frown deepened upon the noise of the sink being turned on.

Another cough and Nami gracefully slide back into the kitchen moments after, hair and clothes perfectly intact.

"H-Hey, I don't feel like having any dinner tonight." She smiled happily at her sister before talking a wad of green out of her pockets and throwing it towards her. The item landed squarely in the palms of the older woman. "That's to pay for the session. Don't work too hard, okay?" Before she could say anything, Nami was off and in her room.

If the situation was any less depressing, Nojiko would've almost laughed at the sight of the premium amounts of cash that were now in her hand. No doubt in her mind where it came from, yet the award for such efforts always appeared so bleak to her.

The doorbell rang just then, and she had to be bothered with opening their front entrance just to behold the sight of a brown-haired boy standing on the porch. He carried a bouquet of orange flowers and a large box of chocolate in his hands, as well as a meek expression. "Um…is Nami-san here?"

"No, she's not." And she slammed the door with a smile.

-----

Luffy took in another breath with an irritated sigh, sucking the contents of his now running nose in before turning back to the paper in front of him. After countless hours of dumping cold water, beer, and some other eerily green-colored stuff Makino brought in from the back room onto him, Usopp had finally woken up and left. He asked what had happened, but only received the simple reply that he had gotten his ass kicked and shouldn't faint anymore. The long-nosed boy looked to have wanted to question Luffy further, but scurried out of the room the second his sight caught the green-haired man napping in the corner.

It was interesting, really, how Zoro managed to fall asleep anywhere and anytime. Makino had been nice enough to allow the man to stay rooted in his spot, especially considering how the commotion from earlier had driven out most of their day-time customers. That was a great idea since strangely, the way he just abruptly sat down and decided to nap on his own accord filled Luffy with a great sense of happiness. Didn't know why, but oh well.

It was that time in the bar when the more rowdy of the people started piling in. It came when the door-just recently repaired from Sanji-was kicked open violently, though not at quite the strength the earlier man had. They would stalk their way to the counter, up-righting any chairs in the way, flirt with Makino, before finally demanding a drink from the woman. However, it didn't really begin until the fighting. Yes, one guy would push the other or steal a sip from someone else's glass, and one thing would lead to another before they'd start beating each other up. Luffy didn't particularly like it, but the atmosphere they created sure was cool.

Not much help was needed, since all those men ever asked for were countless bottles of beer and maybe a cigarette or two. Which was the reason why the straw-hat boy was now forced to tackle the complexity of his math homework alone behind the counter.

This was confusing. It's not like he needed to know the value of x in order to build a ship anyway. Even if he were to make one out of boredom, he'd just go ahead and build it on instinct, that's what a true shipwright would be able to do anyhow. Aside from the initial confusion at people wasting their lives on finding what x is, Luffy scribbled a messy "_Square Root 23.8/5*10^3 mm_" as his final answer after a few seconds of staring and closed his book. He slide back in his chair with his hands crossed behind his head. Only a half-hour passed since he first sat down, and it was raining outside. Damn it.

"AAARRRGGGHH…! I'M SO BORED!" he slammed both his arms against the countertop of the bar and rested the side of his head against it, oblivious to the many stares he received. Maybe he should ask Zoro to play a game of tag? Luffy tilted his head to the table next to the window in which the man still sat, back against the chair board and snoring away. Noticing the sway of the trees against the wind of the storm outside the window, a bright light bulb made its way into Luffy's head.

Without bothering to grab a jacket, he dashed across the floor and made his way outside.

A man was there, arms crossed and against his chest as he stared intently at the building. He almost appeared to be waiting for Luffy out in the rain, but the theory was quickly disproved when the boy passed by him without a word. Neither seemed very affected by the storm that was now edging onto catastrophic.

"Haven't seen you around here." He finally spoke, the majority of his face hidden by the hood of his over-sized coat.

Luffy stopped in his tracks, his head turning with a smile, "me neither."

He inched his way forward, his large and muscular hand making contact with the exterior of the building, "this house is holding sturdy after all these years."

The shorter boy raised his vision away from the man, his body turned sideways and the red shirt beginning to stick loosely on his skin. The strangely-shaped roof occasionally made eerily creaks against the vicious winds and rain and the shutters of the windows shook, yet none of the noise succeeded in interrupting the sanctuary just beyond the walls. It was fooling to the mind. A ship among canoes, the scene resembling the waves of the angry ocean trying to detach an island.

"Amazing, isn't it?" He could make out the outline of a confident smirk underneath the hood.

Abandoning all sense of hesitation, Luffy turned in order to peer at the moderate structure. He had his hands crossed on his chest in a similar fashion to that of the man in front of him just moments before, a smirk gracing his features, "it should be."

Silence loomed over them, the distant sounds of "give that back!" and "you want to fight?!" audible just a few feet away. It had started.

The taller of the two stared back at him and paused, "it's not good for little boys to be out here in the rain, ya know."

"Yeah, thanks for the advice." Luffy's smile etched into a grin and he took off once more, but not before sending the building another glance. This guy didn't seem so bad.

The latter swiftly turned around, teeth gritting slightly in shock and his hair sticking out from underneath his large cloak. What was that supposed to be? Eventually, he relaxed his tense body and shook the strangeness of the abrupt response out of his mind.

"How did I even end up back here? How Un-Super…"

**END OF CHAPTER**

What's that? It's shorter than the last…? I know. Sorry for the lack of any real high-school clichés present in this chapter, but I'll try my best to include more of them next time without actually ruining the story. Yes, Nami was a huge focus this time around and some of you may be curious as to the sudden turn around of events.

To be honest, when I first planned this story, I had wanted something with exhilarating action and adventure, just with a mix of my own drama and romance here and there. I realized that this was just something I wrote out of my own desire to simply have a version of One Piece out there that had some more Luffy/Nami in it in order to make up for the current one. No, I very much love, support, and find Oda's handling of romance very refreshing so don't take it the wrong way. But with how cheap romance novels affect our brains these days, one can't help but be squeamish.

It occurred to me that there really was no definite path for where I was going with this and that was probably driving fans away, so all I did here was give it one. Or, at least make it more prominent than it was before. For that reason, I have also changed the summary of the story so then I'd actually get some more people reading this rather than just the ones who can look past the initial "great, another retell of the One Piece story but with bad OCs/romances and in high school". The story deserves more credit than that if I want to finish it.

Sorry for the long wait!


	4. Opposites

Hooray for not being dead…I swear I don't even remember much of what I planned with this story anymore. And yes, my style of writing has drastically changed and I have to apologize for that. Here's the next chapter anyway, so I hope you enjoy!

I should warn you that I've decided to change the direction of this story and…you'll understand once you read.

_Disclaimer:__ I do not own One Piece. Luffy would kick my ass if I did._

**Chapter 4**

No matter what twist of fate or horrifying event were to take place this day, she would not be convinced. She wasn't the only one who thought so either. For the probable amount of all the grains of the earth crunched up in her high-heel shoes wouldn't ruin this day. The shallow stares of people of the opposite gender as she rode down the street wouldn't ruin this day. Heck, if the world government declared war on her at that moment, it wouldn't ruin this day; of course not.

What was with her life recently anyway? Each time she thought about it, her shoulders would sag, her breath would fall to short rasps, and she would gain the frightening need to grab the nearest pointed object to her and crush it against her skin.

She never did, obviously.

No need to have some rumor going around that the orange-haired maiden had suddenly gone Goth. It was disgusting though; how she'd forget about everyone and anyone around her and suddenly close up in her own confined space like some spoiled pansy.

If she told anyone, broke down into cries of agony, and threatened to kill herself over it, now _that_ would ruin her day. She'd rather be a spoiled pansy than a manifestation of tears any day.

"You doing okay…?" Breaking eye contact with the ground, she looked to the owner of the voice in slight surprise.

She shrugged and forced her face up indifferently, whispering the words so then no one else would hear, "you've been asking that for a while now. You're acting like I'm going to die today…I'm almost believing it myself if you keep this up."

"Well…"

Nami immediately held her arms up in defense, a nervous laugh escaping her lips.

"Relax, I can eat." She stated back confidently, "it has nothing to do with food."

"I better hope so."

Nami adjusted the rim of her sunglasses, waving awkwardly at a young man who chanced a look at her. She proceeded to flatten the collar of her exposing neckline, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Did you count how much money?"

Nojiko finally turned her gaze away from her sister, the first smile since last night etching its way onto her face. "Yeah, it's a wonder that no one has caught you yet. You're getting better each time, too."

"You bet I am." She smirked, strutting her way ahead of the older woman in her episode state of giddiness.

When no one was looking, she had an unmatched skill to tuck a bill under the pockets of a crying pedestrian, a mortified stranger, or even a kicked puppy looking for food. She couldn't help it; they were in her part of town, and the state of its upbringing was irritating her to no end. It was almost like someone was adversely causing all of this, despite her efforts to balance out the twisted world they called home. After all, no one suspected a sweet little girl.

Of course, this didn't mean she didn't keep a large sum of the greens for herself.

Short piles of puddles littered the ground from the storm last night, but neither girl seemed bothered by it. By the time they reached the door of their destination, the giddiness was gone.

She peered left and right, tucking that one stray bit of hair behind her ear and well under her scarf. It paid to be a girl after all; no one questioned you for wearing a scarf in the middle of spring, and Nami wasn't going to pass the chance to take advantage of that. Her gaze fell against anyone that may have been even looking at her, but luckily, no one was. Her sister sighed from behind her.

"She's a friend of mine," Nojiko frowned, "she wouldn't tell anyone."

Nami glared holes at the wall of the door in front of her and nodded. When she didn't move, the girl behind her proceeded to push the two doors open in her place. They bumped against the walls beyond simultaneously as the two rushed in before they closed back again.

The room was empty, with the exception of a lone table to the far right which held a large man sipping a bottle of cola. He was tall, almost unnaturally so. A newspaper rested in his lap, and both doubted that he was paying any attention to them at all. In other words, he was no threat.

The orange-haired girl sighed and finally lifted her sun-glasses away from her face, half-satisfied from the lack of people.

"This isn't that bad." Without thinking, she almost skipped up to the nearest chair and plopped herself onto it. Nojiko smiled and made her way to the opposite side of the table. They both waited patiently, though the younger of the two didn't cease peering back at the door once in a while. She couldn't be too sure.

"So, she's finally back." They both snapped out of their musings to face a soft-looking woman standing beside their space. "I haven't seen you in a while, Nojiko."

The blue-haired of the bunch sent a relaxed smile, "didn't have the time to until now."

She nodded, dropping the subject with a flick of her hand. "And your sister, right? The one who's been running around doing all the work? You've grown since I saw you last, though I guess there isn't a point in stating the obvious."

Nojiko nodded, while Nami prepared her mind for the one question that she suspected her to ask. They always did.

"The usual, am I correct? And what would you like, miss?" A knowing tint flashed in the eyes of the waitress for the briefest of moments, but nothing else.

"A _Tangerine de l'eau_ is fine."

She nodded, scribbling down the order with a content frown. Nami faced away from the two, observing the wallboards parallel to her.

"You aren't usually in the kitchen in the afternoon," Nojiko rested her chin on the palm of her hand, "with such a small number of customers coming in at this time; I'm surprised you aren't falling asleep already."

"I've been getting some help lately," her face contorted into one of slight indifference, yet her voice almost came out floating. Nojiko raised an eyebrow.

"Really…? The great and fearful Makino has been getting help?" She sounded amused, and Nami widened her eyes, but kept her gaze intent on the opposite wall.

"He's more trouble than he's worth," A shrug was sent their way, surprisingly accompanied by a smile. Without another word, the fourth presence was off to the kitchen and the two sisters and man were once again left by themselves.

The sound of a flipped page resounded, indicating he had finished that section of reading.

"I like her." The silent stopped.

"Huh?" Nojiko turned back, surprised at the first thing willingly uttered by her since the woman appeared.

"She doesn't question anyone." Nojiko raised an eyebrow.

Nami's half-lidded eyes glazed over with boredom and she snorted, "figures that you'd make weird friends like that."

The imposing girl listened, confusion overtaking her.

"If the world were filled with idiots like her, then we'd all be doomed."

"I'll take that as a compliment." The side of Nojiko's lips tinged up a little and she crossed her arms.

The chatter from outside the bar increased, indicating that many of the people were now off on their lunch breaks. Luckily, no one disturbed the tiny bar. It didn't look like it would be for a while now.

She knew she was being stupid. She had every reason to do so; it wasn't like other people weren't counting on her, but it just seemed so _pointless_. An invisible enemy was what stood in her way, and she had no lust less eyes to look up to, no pleasant memories pushing her on, no goal to reach, no dream…her everything was stupid. Except for one.

Nami stared blankly at her glass. It's about time she came out with it, wasn't it?

"There's a storm coming tonight." The teen said blankly.

"Another one, huh…?" Nojiko replied, equally as passing about it all. Her sister always did this whenever a forecast other than sunny or moderately cloudy was on the list. Just two days before, she had warned her not to go anywhere of importance last night, and she had to admit, she sure was glad she didn't. Anyone out in the storm that night would've dropped half-dead the next day.

"The one last night was too humidified to be the final one."

When had she ever bothered to tell her the reason?

"How big is it?"

"A house built on a frame any less strong than Hickory will be destroyed," she tilted her glass of water to and fro indifferently, "roughly ninety-one percent of the neighborhood will be a mess. It will tilt on wind speeds of 186 miles per hour; just under the assessment of an F2 tornado."

Nami finally sipped from her drink, with the same grace as a queen waiting for her servers. "The worst of it will hit Cocoyashi with no reprieve."

What?

"Th-That's crazy though." She never realized that her body was now tensed up against the table, "the television forecasts would've detected something like that!"

"Have I ever been wrong before?" Just then, a light drizzle of rain started sounding from outside.

Surprised shrieks of fear came from several people just by the doorstep of the restaurant. They were soon followed by the noises of young girls running for shelter and men messily opening their umbrellas. By then, Nojiko was on the verge of bursting out in unstable laughter, but kept herself contained in order to turn on her heel and made her way to look out the window. Indeed, the horizon of a downpour was starting.

**OPOPOP**

The car jerked against the uneven gravel of the road, further slipping side to side from the sudden rain that had been bestowed on it. The bundles tied to the back crashed against the seats from the rough ride. From the front, one could've mistaken it as a monster of some sort.

The cackling laugh didn't stop despite all of the complications. It still continued and tortured whoever else was in the vehicle. But for once, he found himself too distracted to be bothered.

'_I-I don't like this...what's happening?_' he peered wearily up at the sky.

"No stopping now!" The woman with long dark hair yelled back with eyes on the road. The fat of her bulging stomach nearly honked the car on the button attached to the steering wheel. "Just two more trips and we'll stop for tonight and get some liquor!"

A cheer resounded from inside, men in their mid-thirties raising their knives high in uneven tangents. He shivered.

**OPOPOP**

"Nami," she had finally calmed enough to tone down her look to a simple glare and frown, "why didn't you tell me earlier?" The screams outside had now escalated at the first strike of lightning in the sky. Neither noticed it.

"You wouldn't have wanted to leave anyway." Nami leaned back, eyeing the man in the corner wearily. "We can't keep protecting them you know. If we brought them with us, we wouldn't have made it here."

"And where is '_here_', exactly?" She felt her nerves beginning to rise, avoiding the true subject of her anger.

Nami shrugged and sent her sister an apologetic look. She overlapped one leg over the other and faced away from her, resuming her wait for food. Nojiko sighed, seemingly calming her shaking body, making her way back to their table.

"So, we're really going to let them die, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Are you really okay with that?"

It was sort of ridiculous when she thought about choosing between something so seemingly trivial and her life. It was no bargain there, that's for sure. All she'd be losing tonight was her absurd attachment, nothing else. Why should she miss them? This was good for the both of them.

'_Either way, it's too late._'

"Yup," she sipped her drink nonchalantly.

"Nami," her tone cold, Nojiko straightened up once more. "What about everyone else?"

"Not my problem." This time, she didn't hesitate with an answer, as cold as icy steel.

Normally, Nojiko would've let it slide, assuming that her nature was just part of who she was. But this time, it was the hesitation. Or rather, the lack thereof that made her stiffly walk over to the slightly smaller girl and lean down, forcefully putting the two at eye-level.

"You don't mean that."

"Try me, _older sister_."

"I don't need to. I already know you don't." A hopeful, almost pleading glint flashed in her eyes, but disappeared just as quickly. It made Nami sick.

"We're safe. Just stop whining and count your blessings." At this, Nojiko broke eye contact, straightening herself angrily against the counter. It was a pledge, one that those few from the neighborhood had agreed upon that day. She was there; they were all there. After that time, she left her sister alone, thinking that keeping her distance would heal her wounds. After all, her sister; her baby sister back then would never break that promise despite every pain she felt to keep it. Now though, she wasn't sure. Now, they still lived together, but never mentioned it. Now, all Nojiko could do was regret every fiber of her being that contributed to that decision so long ago. "You know, all those years of stealing have really done something to your head!"

"Took you long enough to find out." The girl sneered.

Leaning back with all the frustration at the stubbornness of the whole situation, Nojiko let out a large sigh and scurried to the front of the room. She turned around once more, almost as quickly as she had first sped-walked to the window, and let out what was left of her voice that held nearly nothing but disbelief.

"We're going back to the house." Yeah, and desperation.

The orange-haired girl leaned back once more, "do what you want, Nojiko."

Feeling the anger in her body rising past the point of logical reasoning, Nojiko simply sent her sister a stiffening glare and marched out of the vicinity. Once more, the restaurant was filled in silence. The only exception of the slight screams outside.

"That sure was something you did there, girly."

Interrupting her cold glare to the floor and remembering that she wasn't alone, Nami gazed up at the hooded man. Except now, his newspaper was down and his large arms crossed and pointed at her. Well yes, she was alone in a bar with a seemingly-scary and unnaturally buff man staring her down, but somehow she didn't feel threatened.

"Don't get the wrong idea Mister," the gaze over her blank stare suddenly switched to one of complete disgust, revolt, and hate. "I've wanted to get rid of her for a while now; I've wanted to get rid of _everyone_ for a while now. Figures that all of them would just go die in the endless pits of their own flaws."

"Of course."

"It doesn't seem that you should really care though, unless you've been staring at us the whole time?" She winked at him.

"Oh, and why would I do that?"

Her mood suddenly switched to one of bashfulness, "well, you seem to be the type to know when to see a nice girl when you see one, ne?"

He stayed silent, watching her. Nami took that as a sign to continue.

"You seem alone, mister." A blush spread across her features, increasing the teen's beauty, "I wanted to have some fun tonight, but didn't want my big mean sister to be hovering around my shoulder. It's always 'be more responsible' with her, but I say enjoy youth while I still got it."

Rolling her eyes, she smiled at him once more. "Say, want to grab a drink or something? We could make a perfect team, but you'll have to lend me your muscles once in a while."

Breaking the tension, the man boasted out a laugh, a huge thundering one which matched that of the real one outside. "You really are some actor, you know that?"

Nami burst into laughter herself, "I know."

He stood up, stretching his arms left and right, causing Nami's eyes to widen slightly. It was only then when the girl finally realized just how _big_ this guy was. Without another word or question, he sat down and resumed the crumpling rhythms of his newspaper.

'_How could he read at a time like this?_' She couldn't help but wonder and stare at the black and white printing which obscured him from her view.

Maybe he was one of those people who would be sitting in a chair laughing while the world was being taken over by those certain idiots.

Abruptly, the tangerine-girl stood up and straightened her body. She began making her way to the door far off on the opposite end of the room where Makino had ventured into just moments before. About time to get to work. '_Besides,_ _I'm hungry. This is a chance to see what's taking the food so long. Someone's got to break it out to her that she'll be having some guests for tonight._'

Nami licked her lips at a slight rumble in her stomach, but frowned. Taking her sudden sadness as hunger, she quickened her pace.

It was shocking how long the corridors actually were in comparison to how they looked from the outside. Of course, they didn't look long to begin with. The expanding halls were only just enough so then any conversation from the kitchen wouldn't be heard unless one was to spit out their vocal cords and catapult them with their tongue as hard as he or she could. Fortunately, Nami could thank that fact.

As her steps filled the hall, the layout of the restaurant was already making its way into her mental eye. Only being here for the first time and a few minutes, the details of every nook and cranny had snuck into her brain and refused to leave her. It always came naturally. She could already imagine herself ripping out a large piece of paper and scribbling her wanderings onto a stream of hallways and doors. Every large pond would be in the place of a table, the corridors proof of a catacomb of caves in waiting to be discovered, the counter the same stream which would carry her on a boat to the ocean, to an island of angels, a floating restaurant, a never-ending desert, her dream…

To put it simply, she hated that feeling. Nothing aggravated her more.

It was time to think about something else. Shouldn't she be worrying about her scarf? Oh yeah, she left them behind on the counter. No big deal. No one was around to see what was hidden in them. And while she was at it, she was still at the task at hand to warn the owner about the approaching danger. Yeah, that's it.

Nami rounded the corner, confident at every aspect of her story. The blade of the knife in her pocket swished uncomfortably in horrible synchronization with her pace. Yes, she had snuck one past her sister. If Nojiko had noticed it, 100% of her mind knew that the older woman wouldn't have left her alone like this. Might as well get a nice last meal before she did anything.

Noticing that the door to the kitchen was already half-opened, she welcomed herself in and raised her vision in order to take in the new atmosphere before her.

Her eyes widened.

She didn't know what took over her when her sight laid on him. She didn't even want to begin to imagine what was crossing her mind at the time. It was so unlike her; almost like some warped up cat had dug his way into her brain and made himself a home in the corners of her head. Each time he was propped to act, he would do so with no restrain on her side. It happened before, but never in front of anyone other than her sister.

"OW…! What was that for?"

Yes, she had punched him, hard.

The main table in the small kitchen had smashed into several smaller pieces as he had been sent flying across the room only to land backwards against it. Surprisingly, the only injury he sustained from the whole ordeal was a miniscule bump on the side of his temple. He took one annoyed look at her, and his eyes widened as well, though only for a moment.

"Yo, Nami…! Whatcha doing here? I thought you were Makino for a sec'." The boy grinned, his previous pain completely forgotten. It was dumb; only someone like him would be so happy at the aspect of being mauled.

Finally taking one good look at him for the first time, she inwardly snorted. If she were anyone other than herself, she would've found the sight of a young teenage boy in a frilly flower laced apron- obviously not his -and flour covering half his body and hair amusing, but she wasn't. It's not like no one else had pulled that kind of look on her anyway. Taking her experience with _boys_ to mind, a sudden idea crossed her.

"I have a fetish for refrigerators." She said blankly. At that, Luffy looked at her half confused and half shocked. "It means that I can't stay away from one for long periods of time."

"Whoa, that sure is weird!" He lifted his hat from behind his back so then it covered his head.

Was this guy for real?

"That's why I'm here," she continued once getting over her initial shock of stupidity, and looked dead serious, "I've been trying to stay away and haven't seen a trace of them for a while now."

"Hmm…mystery refrigerator…" Luffy tilted his body and head to the side, arms crossed as if in deep thought. Finally, he spoke. "That must suck then, not being able to eat."

"I don't need to eat," Nami shrugged and smiled sweetly. It couldn't hurt to keep her lie going for a little while longer. She proceeded to take a seat on a lone chair which had only just missed the earlier collision of boy and table. With all these complications in her life recently, it somehow amused her to play this game with someone with such low mentality. It had become a habit to flirt with the presence of someone below her and kissing her feet, if only to look down and laugh.

So, she lied.

"But my doctor insisted on it anyway, so he sends me a pre-packaged supply of non-perishable food items once a week."

"Don't you miss eating meat?" Luffy answered, shocked at the prospect of someone not eating the best thing in the world.

"Not really…I have this mental illness and if I eat it, it instigates a psychological gateway to my nerves."

And lied some more.

"I see." He nodded seriously, but said nothing more.

"…Aren't you going to ask how?" After a moment of silence, Nami sent him a look of hurt.

"How…?" Luffy scratched his head, confused.

"How I got my terrible condition, I mean."

"Okay, well how did ya get it?"

"It was horrible, really. It happened when I was eight. My father abruptly died in a horrible car crash, but the last thing he said to me before leaving this world was, '_stay away from the refrigerator until lunch, Nami! I'll be back and we'll all eat together then._' So I haven't been allowed to eat refrigerated food since then." She paused, her eyes dilating, "I know I sound stupid, but I still see him sometimes in my sleep, and-"

"You're weird." He replied childishly.

"I wasn't finished, Luffy-kun…"

"Who cares? It's not my business anyway."

Swallowing her slight surprise down, Nami finished, "but in the end it looks like I'm here anyway, doesn't it? I guess it's because you were here too." She sent him another sugar-toothed giggle, the light blush on her face completing the picture.

"You came here on your own." Luffy rubbed the soar spot on his temple. At the sudden change in tone in his voice, Nami frowned for a moment.

"And it's not my fault, so don't punch me!" Sticking his tongue out in disgust, not necessarily at her, he grabbed the used blender from behind him and dropped it in the sink. He didn't seem to notice the remains of watermelon skin which landed on his hair as a result.

Another giggle, "it sort of is." In turn, she also propped her tongue out playfully, "I was hungry, and if you weren't taking so long, I wouldn't have come."

"So…the only food that's been ordered right now both have meat, and you were eating in _this restaurant_, and came because you wanted some."

And was caught in her lie.

Realizing her slip-up, her eyes widened. Luffy grinned.

"See? I knew it! Everyone needs meat!" He laughed, albeit it sounded slightly obnoxious in the ears of the girl. How'd he get so clever all of a sudden?

She wasn't sure if it was the beats of his laugh, but for the first time, she heard the rough beating of the rain atop the roof. It pounded in her ears in an unforgiving chorus. Of course, it's been there the whole time. But only now was she forcefully _listening_ to it in the form of his voice. From it, a sudden lurch sounded from inside her, rising up from its home in her stomach to her throat. Damn it, why now?

"That's good. 'Cause you're going to die stupid if you don't eat what you want," the thought of it horrified him, "it's better to live with a refrigerator _featisak _or whatever it's called-"

"Where's Makino?" Nami interrupted, desperately changing the subject. Multiple beads of sweat had formed on her brow since then. Seemingly forgetting his mourning's over the scenario of no food, Luffy averted his eyes from the ceiling back to her.

"We didn't have any tangerines left, so she went to get more."

Nami stopped herself, "What?"

"Someone ordered a dish involving some blue fish and a tangerine, but we didn't have any left. She went to the grocery store to buy more."

Jumping up and knocking the chair away in the process, Nami rushed her way to him. If she hadn't had a single cling of control left, she knew she would've just grabbed onto his collar and yelled right in his face. She had to thank her lucky stars that she didn't.

"Luffy," she started, dropping her supposed honorific, "look outside."

Just as his neck craned to the direction of the round window to the left, a frightening flash of lightning filled the air. Only a mere three seconds later did the thunder sound right after its leader. The lightning made itself known once more, causing the presence of the lamps above them to flicker suspiciously.

It wasn't until Luffy turned back to her that she realized how close she had suddenly gotten to him. She took a stiff step back.

"You hear that? That's the sound of the calming before the storm." Skimming through the contents of her geographical memory, she tonelessly added, "the grocery store is located nine and a half blocks from here just to the north-west. If she left roughly fifteen minutes ago at a steady walking pace then she should be bordering just on the centre road of Cocoyashi."

Seeing that Luffy remained quiet, she took it as her cue to go on. She couldn't tell him the truth.

So, she lied again.

"The durability of the houses there range from slim to none, and the residents of such a place spend most of their past time gardening." She sighed, "no other place in this town will see more damage. Your friend probably wouldn't make it."

Another flash, and a loud rumbling following with a shortened one second delay.

"Makino wouldn't die from something stupid like a storm."

"Oh, and what makes you say that?" She raised a brow, hiding her slight concern behind another cold stare. Lying was starting to become troublesome under his strong gaze. It was weird how he looked so objective and intimidating with it, yet at the same time innocent. The dizziness returned.

"Because," Luffy shrugged, "she's Makino."

Feeling her digestive system lurch under her once more, Nami desperately held it in. She could almost smell the contents of her stomach all the way from her nose and mouth. It was taunting her; she had realized that long ago. But no, she won't throw up in front of him.

Seeing her sudden look of exasperation, Luffy shrugged once more and turned his back to her, wiping a dish against his cloth. He casually lifted his arm, thumb pointing to a door which was what Nami guessed to be the bathroom.

Even with this sudden opportunity, Nami didn't move. She took that as a gateway to giving up. All she had to do was win, leave, and never talk to this guy again, like she had done with every other guy before.

Yes, she could handle it.

The pounding in her chest didn't mean anything.

Her sudden notion to sweat in every corner of her body was nothing.

Were her legs getting weaker? No, definitely not. It just disgusted her to no end to have to deal with it; that was all. The way the flashing beams of light erupted through her head wasn't helping. Being sick majorly sucked.

Making her way to the chair she sat in moments before, Nami picked it back up and propped herself onto it. For once, she opted to simply sit silently and avoid talking to Luffy at any cost. Being near him made her headache worse, a fact that any supposed rise in her reputation wasn't worth. She just needed to calm down and get something to eat.

But first, she needed that win. That was all that mattered to her, right?

Breathing, she slowly counted.

_One, two, three…_

The room started spinning, yet she continued. "Aren't you worried about her?"

"Ah…?"

_This…idiot…_

Her patience wore thin, "Makino…aren't you worried even a bit?"

"Hm," Luffy shrugged with a childish troubled look, "that would be strange."

_This…absolute idiot…!_

"Strange…?" Nami sighed; this dizziness was really starting to peeve her off. "You mean when you finally decide to get up off your butt and out of your frequent episode of ignorance just to realize that it's too late and the eminent remains of your former employer and _close friend_ have been decapitated by the tooth of a wood-like spear adjacent from the grave of decomposing bodies?"

She looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Is that what's so _strange_ to you…?"

"You use long words, you know that?"

_This…absolutely infuriating…__**DUMBASS**__!_

"Would you just _shut up_ for once!" she couldn't help not yelling. The way the room was spinning, the flashes of white coming from the window every few seconds, this idiot talking to her like a true king of idiots, her sister…

Her sister. The guilt clouded her mind; what would the look on her face be?

"I did it for _her_ own good! If she just let those dumb things go, then she wouldn't have to keep living like this! She would be gone eventually if I didn't get rid of them first!"

"Ah?" He scratched his head once more, but kept listening.

"Her, no, _everyone_ in my neighborhood pours out a ton of money and care every week just to keep those things alive! Ignoring their own suffering and stupid wills just to keep some dumb remembrance of that woman…she wouldn't have wanted this…" Nami's voice died down. In rhythm, the sounds of the rumbling storm seemed to stop to listen.

"How can you…just stand here watching it happen…?" the girl finished with her head down, her question filled with a sincere call for advice. The flame in her mind burned out. As it got smaller, the realization of what she just said began dawning on her.

_Maybe it's not so bad that he's an idiot. _She quickly shook that thought from her head.

Luffy looked at her for a second longer, but didn't hesitate as he answered.

"An amazing person, being remembered by a bunch of more amazing people, who will soon reach their dream to see her again in another world. Don't see a problem with that." An unidentifiable expression crossed his features; she hated those.

Nami shot her head back up, an evident glare on her features and no more care for what she revealed to him that night. The only thing that filled her was the extreme anger, disbelief, gratitude, and suspicion she felt for the boy before her.

So, she told the truth.

"Just admit it! You really do think Makino will die, don't you? No one can just send someone out in a storm like that and shrug it off like losing a game of cards!" Her voice rose, but she didn't care. "No one but _you_, I suppose. People like you deserve to die! And guess what? You'll be getting that fate tonight; we'll _both_ be getting it. Because I lied! The winds there will be approximately 35 units better than this place! The only things dying around here are **you**, those stupid tangerine trees, and me-" She stopped mid-sentence, her finger by now pointing at him.

_What am I even saying anymore…?_

"So, what you're telling me is that _I_ should've run out there in the mystery tornado all cool-like and try to save _her_?" Luffy looked thoughtfully at her, one hand propped on his chin in deep thought; a small portion of soap being left on his face in the process. Finally, he snapped his fingers in excitement, "sounds like an awesome adventure!"

For a moment, she almost agreed with him. Didn't she already decide she wanted to die?

"But nah," he shrugged once more, "she never asked for my help. She's strong. I trust her."

"L-Listen here! You…d-don't know what you're t-talking about…"

As if he didn't hear her, he added, "You do too, right?" and smiled, almost softly, back at Nami.

_Wait, who were we talking about again? _

Damn.

Another up ride of mush seemed to rise through her chest. Was the room starting to shake faster? Why did the flashes make her feel dizzier? But…she felt sleepy all of a sudden.

_It's all his fault…_

Before she knew what was going on, her vision went blank and a blunt pain made impact to her side. A loud crash was heard as she finally succumbed to the darkness, the chair under her falling back. At the same time, the concealed knife she had been hiding for so long fell out of her thigh and on the floor. It was cold and hard.

'_You do too, right?_'

She decided then that it wasn't just guilt she felt. She did want to run after her sister; no matter how much worse off she herself would be here. She did want to die, no matter how selfish she would be for not believing that they would all survive if she gave them a chance. She did want to kill those tangerine trees, no matter how empty everyone would be after losing two memories of Bellemére at once.

She was the opposite of Luffy.

And she hated herself for it.

**OPOPOP**

"_The storm has drastically increased in intensity tenfold in the last 20 minutes. By now, the winds have reached a high 145 miles/per hour and has continued to incline-"_

"_We interrupt the weather broadcast with breaking news. A large black van filled with at least 5 people has been discovered in front of the upper Bank of Fushia, up righted by the high winds and propped up against a large broken tree. According to officials, the impact from such a phenomenon is not survivable. However, until the storm has resided, the police cannot completely send their units to recover the vehicle, but it is suspected that the car may be owned by a street robber by the name of Iron Club Alvida."_

**OPOPOP**

The patting of the rain only became louder and louder.

'_It's annoying._' She had established that long before.

It sounded stupid, but normally she'd find the splashing sounds of water comforting, the slight howl of strong winds brave, and the crash of lightning strangely rejuvenating. A tingle in her body would ignite at every slight change in either of the three. When it was sunny, a sense of optimism would wash over her; rainy would give her a nagging desire to sleep all day; and with cloudy days came a feeling of pride. Of course, she never let any of these strange emotions affect how she acted. It would seem cool to some at first, but in truth, it was troublesome at her position.

It was always harder to be laid back on a day where a hurricane or tornado was terrorizing another part of the country. Even if one wasn't a threat to where she resided, it still made her edgy and insomniac. Even in her deep state of unconsciousness, the sounds of the storm which very well threatened her ceased to leave her ears. Perhaps that was the reason why she just couldn't feel any comfort on this day.

Or maybe she was just plain pissed at everything.

Yeah, that sounded about right.

Now she would wake up to the worried yet stern look of her sister. To the eyes that were already sending her on a guilt trip just by a mere mental image for getting herself involved once more.

_No, I forgot. That won't happen ever again._

Where was she again?

'_That's right. Talking to Luffy…No one would take that idiot seriously if he told…_'

She braced herself at the hard state of awareness which hit her. Which was why when she opened her eyelids, she was surprised to only see the solid eyes of Luffy as he knelt down next to her instead. Right after her vision focused, she quickly closed it shut again. Damn it, what was going on?

"Oi…! She's awake!" Luffy shouted out; to who, Nami wasn't sure. She had a sneaking suspicion to who it was though.

"Hm, that wasn't very long." A deep voice which definitely didn't belong to Nojiko came to her. It was a man; the same as the one in the restaurant before. Though, she could barely hear it over the fighting winds outside, strangely giving her energy to attempt opening her eyes once more. Something about the acidic pattering of water against the building kept her from sleeping.

'_Looks like the storm is finally here._' Why this poor excuse for a restaurant wasn't blown half-way to Skypiea, she didn't know.

"Hey, sorry to disappoint you, but this place won't be coming down anytime soon, especially from a little storm like this," as if reading her mind, that was all the man said before retreating back to his quiet corner. Beside his towering figure, she caught sight of her knife. It was harshly stabbed into one of the wooden tables at the back, blade engraved into the surface. How did it get there? Did he just read her mind? And how did she get from the kitchen to the bar?

"Looks like your little plan backfired." He added, and picked up his newspaper once more.

Damn. What was with this day?

"Oi, what's that guy talking about?" She switched her attention back to the straw-hat boy, who ironically was still half covered in flour and wearing that same frilly apron.

_Him again._

"None of your damn business. Just something stupid and boring." She scoffed up at him.

Silence. Another flip of the page; another rumble of thunder; a slight shake of the walls around them.

"Yeah, but dying is pretty stupid and boring." Her heart beat quickened as realization hit her.

He knew, he knew everything. He knew everything without even meaning to; she was the one who was an open book. No, not even, she was a newspaper flying in the wind who forcefully slapped herself against his face, letting his vision read every single word of her plan against his will. She eyed where the knife was once more. Was he the one who…?

She snapped herself out of it, using her last resort, "I _know_ that. And I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Living is too, unless you do something about it." He quietly added, but not enough for her to not hear it.

Without another word, he snatched two plates off the counter beside him. One contained the now prepared tomato fried rice with eel which Nojiko ordered, while the other had a plentiful helping of fish fillet with a salad on the right of it. He placed both of them on a table, a grin on his face, seemingly forgetting their earlier exchange.

"You came here looking for food, right? Makino taught me how to cook a bit so I wouldn't go hungry whenever she left. Neat, huh? Still no tangerines though…" With a pout edging on his mouth on the apparent lack of acidic fruits, Luffy walked away with his hands held at the back of his head, disappearing back into the kitchen.

The dizziness of her head was starting to return. Without comprehending his last line, she could only nod as she lifted herself onto a chair, ignoring the fact that he had already left. Great, in all her troubles, she had forgotten to tell him that they'd be around for a while. As her annoyances built up, thoughts began to swirl in her mind at an uncontrollable rate.

Many would've found her selfish for planning what she did; but, she couldn't stand being around Nojiko and holding a straight face in front of her. Her sister, giving her a betrayed glance, a handful of her own town glaring at her each morning, as they all knew that she had probably seen this particular storm from over a thousand miles away. Enough time to save them all, every single branch and tangerine…yet she didn't.

And she lied. She never did anything but, it seemed.

_It was for their own good…they were being dumb._

'…who will soon reach their dream to see her again in another world. Don't see a problem with that.'

_So you're okay with everyone dying? They'll all be gone over nothing!_

'…wouldn't die from something stupid…I trust her…You do too, right?'

_I do WHAT? I trust her, so shut up!_

'…run out there in the mystery tornado all cool-like and try to save her? Nah.'

_All they need saving from is their own weak minds when they find out I fucking tried to kill myself with a knife! They don't understand!_

'**They're **strong.'

…_I know._

'You're going to die stupid…it's better to live with a refrigerator featisak or whatever it's called.'

It wasn't until she was sure that she was out of hearing range of the man she was indirectly fighting with when she finally spoke.

"Live with it, MY ASS!"

…_but, I will._

**OPOPOP**

As she returned home late afternoon the next day, somehow it didn't surprise her that not a single one of the trees had decapitated that night.

She decided that she didn't want to die anymore.

**OPOPOP**

I told you this chapter was going to be different than my usual stuff so far. I just thought that so far, there weren't many people reading this story past chapter 1 as they came in expecting to read more about Nami, and Luffy's psychological effect on people and her, only to read over 10 pages of chapter one just to realize she doesn't even appear yet.

Don't think that I'm only changing the story because of view/review counts; I _want_ to change it, so no biggie there

See you guys next chapter!


End file.
